captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: government troops and rebels fought a pitched battle for control of a key oil town in libya. and moammar qaddafi issued a defiant statement after two of his key advisors resigned. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on the fighting, the defections and what c.i.a. teams are doing now on the ground in libya. >> brown: then, will the budget showdown in congress result in a government shutdown? we ask senator benjamin cardin, democrat of maryland and indiana republican representative mike pence. >> woodruff: spencer michels looks at the science behind tsunamis and whether japan's crisis is a wake-up call for the united states. >> government scientists here in seattle say their tsunami warning systems saved a lot of lives but they're not sure what would happen if the big one hits the pacific northwest. >> brown: and margaret warner updates the political chaos and escalating violence in the african nation of ivory coast. that all ahead on tonight's "

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: government troops pummeled libyan rebels with rocket and artillery fire and re-captured a key oil town. good evening, i'm jim lehrer. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on the eastward retreat and on the growing debate over whether the coalition should now arm the opposition. >> lehrer: then, we look at trade-offs on energy as president obama presented ways to reduce dependence on foreign oil. >> ifill: from india, fred de sam lazaro reports on troubles in the business of providing small loans to the poor. >> people in villages like this say agents from various microfinance companies would come in and try to sell them on loans without regard to whether they had other loans outstanding. there were no questions asked about what the loans were for. ( gunshots ) >> lehrer: and judy woodruff has a conversation about this date 30 years ago, when president ronald reagan was shot outside a washington hotel. that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour ha

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: rebel troops clashed with libyan forces, as they took the battle west toward moammar qaddafi's home town of sirte. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get the latest on the allied air power assisting the opposition and the new momentum of the rebel advance, retaking key towns along the northern coast. >> ifill: and in a speech to the nation tonight, president obama defends u.s. involvement. >> brown: plus, we update the spiraling nuclear crisis in japan, where new radiation levels have been found in the air, seawater, and soil around the fukushima plant. >> ifill: and ray suarez talks to marcia coyle about today's supreme court free speech arguments involving a campaign finance law in arizona. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: having the security of a strong financial partner certainly lets you breathe easier. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped millions of americans build a secure financ

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: government troops opened fire on protesters in syria today as thousands of syrians took to the streets in several cities. good evening. i'm jim lehrer. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on today's clashes, the most widespread unrest in the arab nation in years. >> lehrer: then, we update the conflict in libya, where coalition planes are helping rebels in the battle for a key eastern town. >> woodruff: spencer michels has the story of a high-tech company documenting patterns of brutality around the world. >> could we make tools to make the human rights movement more powerful by helping them do more with the information they have about human rights abuses? >> lehrer: newshour political editor david chalian goes through the list of republicans preparing to run for president in 2012. >> woodruff: we get analysis of this week's news from mark shields and byron york, filling in for david brooks. >> lehrer: and margaret warner explores the looming food crisis in north korea. >>

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: a french fighter jet destroyed a libyan plane that breached the no-fly zone. and the battle intensified between government and rebel troops in the western city of misrata. good evening, i'm jim lehrer. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: we update the military operation and get two views on what the u.s. and its allies can do to stop moammar qaddafi's forces. >> lehrer: then, judy woodruff talks to the editor of the yemen times about the growing protests in that arab nation. >> they want a life where they don't have to think of future and be equal. >> brown: paul solman has the story of the widening gap in american society between the very rich and the rest of the country. >> the top 1% is living well, and they don't get it. they don't get what is happening to this country and i feel like we're creating a third world country subculture within this country. >> lehrer: and ray suarez looks at new census numbers showing one in six americans is hispanic. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "n

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: coalition strikes have now grounded moammar qaddafi's air force and pounded targets in libya's capital, tripoli. good evening, i'm jim lehrer. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on the air campaign and the fighting on the ground and talk to deputy national security advisor denis mcdonough. >> lehrer: and former senators gary hart and norm coleman assess president obama's decision to use u.s. military power in libya. >> ifill: then, we get a report from a japan battered by nuclear disaster and now facing elevated radiation levels in its tap water. >> lehrer: miles o'brien looks at the future for u.s. nuclear power in the wake of the japan crisis. >> ifill: ray suarez reports on how the north african nation of morocco is working to avoid becoming the next target of regional unrest. >> reporter: in washington, morocco's foreign minister gave us an overview of king mohammed's planned reforms for a country facing some of the same discontents as its neighbors. >> you know what i feel li

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: coalition bombs pounded libyan targets for a fourth day, while moammar qaddafi's forces shelled rebels in two western towns. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we have reports on the fighting and the crash of a u.s. military jet in the east. and we talk to libya's ambassador to the united states, ali suleiman aujali, who denounced moammar qaddafi last month. >> ifill: then, margaret warner looks at rifts within the nato alliance about the libya mission. >> brown: from japan, we get the latest on the cleanup in the hard-hit city of sendai. >> it might not seem much to you, but believe me it's a huge step that you now can actually drive up at the airport's departure terminal. >> ifill: and judy woodruff interviews japan's ambassador to the u.s., ichiro fujisaki. >> brown: special correspondent steve sapienza reports from bangladesh on the struggle to meet the basic needs of an exploding population. >> dahka is one of the world's fastest growing cities and one of the poores

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: workers at japan's damaged fukushima nuclear plant used water cannons, heavy duty fire hoses, and military helicopters in an effort to cool down overheating fuel rods, but it's not clear that anything has worked. president obama said today there was no risk to any u.s. territory from the reactors. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on the containment operations, the ongoing exodus of people from areas close to the reactors, and new footage from when the tsunami struck six days ago. >> woodruff: and amid signs of both resilience and confusion, we look at japan's political culture in response to the disaster. >> brown: then, ray suarez has an update on libya, as the u.n. moves to a vote on establishing a no-fly zone over the country. >> woodruff: margaret warner talks to irish prime minister enda kenny about the celtic tiger's struggle to kick-start it's economy. >> brown: and tom bearden reports on a project to use private satellites to help stop g

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: workers at japan's damaged fukushima nuclear plant used water cannons, heavy duty fire hoses, and military helicopters in an effort to cool down overheating fuel rods, but it's not clear that anything has worked. president obama said today there was no risk to any u.s. territory from the reactors. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on the containment operations, the ongoing exodus of people from areas close to the reactors, and new footage from when the tsunami struck six days ago. >> woodruff: and amid signs of both resilience and confusion, we look at japan's political culture in response to the disaster. >> brown: then, ray suarez has an update on libya, as the u.n. moves to a vote on establishing a no-fly zone over the country. >> woodruff: margaret warner talks to irish prime minister enda kenny about the celtic tiger's struggle to kick-start it's economy. >> brown: and tom bearden reports on a project to use private satellites to help stop genocide. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> you can't manufacture pride, but pride builds great cars. and you'll find it in the people at toyota, all across america. >> auto companies make huge profits. >> last year, chevron made a lot of money. >> where does it go? >> every penny and more went into bringing energy to the world. >> the economy is tough right now, everywhere. >> we pumped $21 million into local economies, into small businesses, communities, equipment, materials. >> that money could make a big difference to a lot of people. >> and by bnsf railway. pacific life. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: japanese engineers marshaled all their remaining tools today in the week-long struggle to prevent a full-blown nuclear disaster. and in washington, president obama sought to reassure americans about the potential for radiation to drift over the u.s. >> we do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the west coast, hawaii, alaska, or u.s. territories in the the pacific. that is the judgment of our nuclear regulatory commission and many other experts. furthermore, the centers for disease control and prevention and public health experts do not recommend that people in the united states take precautionary measures beyond staying informed. >> brown: the president also made an unannounced visit to the japanese embassy in washington. he signed a condolence book for the thousands of dead and missing. and he said he has ordered a complete safety review of all 104 nuclear reactors in the u.s. meanwhile, u.s. officials kept a watchful eye on the situation at the fukushima daichi plant 140 miles north of tokyo, heavily damaged after losing its cooling system in last week's earthquake and tsunami. a spokesman for the plant's owner said today, "we are doing all we can as we pray for the situation to improve." we have a series of reports from independent television news, beginning with tom clarke, on the nuclear crisis. >> reporter: filmed yesterday through a shaky lens, from the safety of a military helicopter, this is the closest glimpse yet of the stricten fukushima nuclear plant. no one is visible outside, given the levels of radiation, few people would want to be. around the wrecked reactors, obvious damage to other buildings caught in the blast. this is the remains of reactor number 3, the core shield believed to be cracked. radioactive steam is clearly escaping from within. but it's the situation obscured by the rubble of building number 4 that's now cause for international concern. this thick vapor is thought to be from a pool where 100 tons of nuclear fuel is stored. two nearby are also heating pup the storage pool contains all the nuclear fuel rods recently removed from the reactor. normally, at least five meters of cool water is kept above the rods to prevent them overheating and shield workers from their radioactive. reports suggest that pool is now completely dry. and that's not good. radiation levels around the pool will now be fatally high. no one can enter the area. exposed to the air, the fuel rods will get dangerously hot. if engineers can't cover the rods with water soon the worst-case scenario is that they catch fire and burn. that would generate hydrogen with the oxidation reaction, and that may lead to more fires and explosions. and i think that's where the area of focus is now. >> reporter: british chinooks dumped water on the reactors from above. official confusion over the true status of that storage pool. engineers at the plant mained there may still be water but it was too radioactive to check. an american drone flying over today concluded it was now empty and the rods extremely dangerous. this evening, teams of firefighters assembled near the plants to begin trying to pump water in from trucks. if there's one piece of good news, it's that levels of radiation, if they are, indeed, accurate, haven't risen since yesterday. the levels vary depending on distance from the site. a person standing near building number 4 would experience 400,000 microsevets, in one newshour, hour other nearly twice the maximum annual dose for emergency crews. outside the plant, levels are 100 times less but still dangerous. some 45 miles away in fukushima city, it drops to 170. and in tokyo, 140 miles away, the level is just .400 of a microsevet for hour, 1/500 of a dose from a chest x-ray. despite reassurances new crises have emerged daily from fukushima. six days since the emergency began, there is as much uncertainty about the danger as there was at the start. >> woodruff: american and japanese officials have given sharply differing assessments of the nuclear situation. and the u.s. and other nations have now ordered chartered flights to get their citizens out of japan. sarah smith reports on the growing exodus of foreigners and japanese. >> reporter: a rush hour train in tokyo should be absolutely packed but after the exodus, the city feels deserted. the intercity bullet traps are taking the strain, moving tens of thousands of people to the south where they think it's safe. children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of radiation, so families are especially keen to get out. what finally made you think it was time to leave tokyo? >> ( translated ): in the last two days, the government has looked more and more desperate. we're more worried for the children than ourselves, so we decided to leave. >> reporter: driving through streets this empty feels very strange in a city that's usually so crowded. people here don't believe their own prime minister anymore. "how can he tell them the plant is safe when america jounz a growing list of countries to extract its citizens." the prime minister's spokesman said it was unnecessary. >> it's difficult to understand the reason behind that kind of behavior. >> reporter: people are flooding into places trying to escape from a threat they cannot see, one they don't know for sure really exists, but one that is so frightening, they don't dare take the risk. she quickly packed up and moved into a hotel. from a generation who remember the atomic bomb attacks on japan she has a particular fear of radiation. >> ( translated ): so many lives were lost in the suttles,. with the radiation, you suffer forever. radiation is more frightening. >> reporter: long queues for petrol stopped people heading south as fast as they'd like but anyone who really believes they are in danger in tokyo will do what it takes to get away. >> brown: more than 450,000 japanese remained in emergency shelters today with supplies running short. and there were new accounts of harrowing escapes from the tsunami. carl dinnen reports on one such story filmed by a japanese tv crew. >> reporter: these are the decisions that keep you alive-- stay in the car or run for it. they run, telling the driver to do the same. keep running or find shelter. they find a building. the water is pooling at their feet. look at the height of that white wall. very soon, the water will reach the top of it. the canopy over the gate will become a bridge. as they climb the stairs, the suttles bursts through the corridors. but not everyone made shelter. there's a woman on the wall, a man in a tree, and standing on a car roof, a father clutching his two young children. someone finds a fire hose. it becomes a rope. as snow falls, the man from the tree makes it in. as dusk falls, a human chain is formed. and it reaches the children. despite the aftershocks, despite the snow, they pass the children from person to person across the tops of shipping containers. calculating that as much as >> woodruff: now, sorting through the latest news in japan and the risks as experts see it. najmedin meshkati is a civil and industrial engineer who has studied nuclear safety for two decades. he's with the university of southern california. and arjun makhijani is an engineer specializing in nuclear fusion. he's the president of the institute for energy and environmental research, which has advocated against nuclear energy, warning of its dangers. gentlemen, thank you both very much for being with us. i'm going to start with you, najmedin meshkati ncalifornia. size up for us right now the situation at the most endangered nuclear plants. >> based on what we hear from your reporters, from itn and also the morning news that i checked, the biggest practical right now is the spent fuel of reactor number 4, which has basically lost all its water and the water has boiled out. and according to the chairman of the u.s. nuclear regulatory commission, yesterday, he also said the same thing. right now, this reactor number 4 spent fuel pool, which doesn't have any containment building, because spent fuel pools are not within the containment building, and the roof on this reactor number 4 has been blown out, which is, i think, the most riskiest and most hazardous element that we have over there. >> woodruff: arjun makhajani what, would you add to that? >> well, you know, each reactor has two elements at risk. there's a reactor, which is like a pressure cooker, and you have the-- to carry away the heat from the pressure cooker regularly because it's generating it from the inside and there's a spent fuel pool inside the reactor building. >> woodruff: which is what we just heard. >> so there are four reactors that have damaged buildings and cooling problems, so there are eight elements. out of that, in all, there seem to be two cooling pools that are having cooling problems and the water is boiling and two reactors that have some damage. and so there are four elements that workers there are struggling to keep cool. >> woodruff: but we're hearing a disagreement, dr. meshkati, about whether that-- the spent fool rods racompletely without water or not. is that a distinction without a difference? >> it may be to some extent. if you cannot really add water and there's a little bit of water in pool number 4, you're going to have a answer serious problemly anyway. you're going to have hydrogen generation. you're going to have melting and you might have fires, as you illustrated in your report 3. >> woodruff: it's of course dr. makhajani, my apologies. >> no problem. >> woodruff: let me turn back to you, najmedin meshkati. on this question again of the spent fuel rods, there's a disagreement not only about the state there, but i gather there's a disagreement between scientists, between the u.s. department of energy and the national academy of sciences about just how great the danger is there. >> you're absolutely right. in fact, based on my information from my friends at the international atomic energy agency in vienna, they don't have a very good reading on that. basically, there are three levels of disagreement here in japan and vienna. the bottom line i think i trust our chairman of the nuclear regulatory commission statements and testimony before congress that he said all the water has been boiled off. >> woodruff: why do you trust that view more than the others? >> because traditionally, at least, i have been through this research and looking at japan's nuclear safety issues since the accident of 1999, there has been some sort of a culture and secrecy, lack of transparency, in japan, in 10co, the tokyo electric power company, and the government, so i do not think we get the most accurate reading from our japanese colleagues. >> woodruff: arjun makhajani, how do you read that? >> independent of whether there's some water or a lot of water, i think we also-- i wish the nuclear regulatory commission chair had said something about the spent fuel pools in this country because the brookhaven national lab did a study for the nuclear regulatory commission in 1997, estimating the damages at anywhere from 700 million to 500 billion dollars, with a "b." and that--. >> woodruff: in this country. >> in this country. and boiling water reactors. indicating that precautionary measures should be taken here. so i think--. >> woodruff: i was just anything to say, to keep the focus on japan. >> right. >> woodruff: because that's where we are today. what are the questions at this point that you think most need to be answered that you're not hearing answers to? >>. >> well, one of the things i think tokyo electric--. >> woodruff: being the-- >> the power company that owns the plants. i think they ought to be measuring radiation out to, you know, into the area where people are actually living and in the houses that are being evacuated and publishing updates. so we can actually have some idea as to where all this radioactivity is going. it's not at the level of chernobyl yet, but if it does get worse we'll have some basis to tell how dangerous things are getting and people can take action. >> woodruff: we did hear some reports in on radiation levels in the itn reports. >> that's right. >> woodruff: you're saying there needs to be more regular reporting. >> i have seen the numbers, the situation near the plant but they don't tell the situation of where people are living because radiation levels are going up and down and there's no accurate record for people to estimate what their risk would be so they can make intelligent decisions. >> woodruff: najmedin meshkati, what for you are the important questions that are not answered yet here? >> i think as dr. makhajani said this is an important issue. one thing i would like to see in this case what didn't happen, unfortunately, in the case of chernobyl, we have not sophisticated software and models for looking at the disburgz modeling, and climatological softwares that we have, we could get some understanding about basically traveling in what direction. that's called dispersion modeling, my business. i think if we can do that, it would help us, basically, to protect our population much better. on the other side, on the plant side, i'd really like to see a very good, honest estimate of the radiation level by tepco about the nature of the hazards and what are some of the contingency plans. this issue of the, lack of transparency within tepco, tokyo electric power company, and to the point even the japanese prime minister yesterday he complained about that. >> woodruff: all right, well, a number of questions that we will all be looking for answers for. gentlemen, thank you very much. >> thank you very much for having me. >> brown: still to come on the newshour: the response of the japanese government and people; the security council takes up libya; the celtic tiger's debt burden; and using private satellites to stop genocide. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> japanese exports will be more expensive. banks and finance ministers of the g7 are considering measures to decrease its value in order to help with japan's recovery. wall street bounced back today after wednesday's big losses. stocks rose on upbeat economic news, including a drop in claims for jobless benefits. the dow jones industrial average gained 161 points to close at 11,774. the nasdaq rose 19 points to close at 2,636. the unrest in the arab world turned deadly again today. in yemen, police and government loyalists attacked protest camps across the country. more than 80 protesters were injured in one southern city. and in bahrain, police arrested at least six leading activists as the main opposition group urged neighboring saudi arabia to withdraw its troops. the u.s. senate has voted to keep the federal government funded for three more weeks. the stopgap measure approved today includes $6 billion in cuts to domestic spending in the current budget year. the bill already passed the house. it buys times for more talks between white house officials and republicans pressing for deeper cuts. the house voted today to end federal funding of npr and to bar public radio stations from paying dues to npr with federal money. it came a week after hidden- camera video showed an npr fundraiser deriding the "tea party" movement. republicans denied the vote was about ideology, but the vote was mostly down party lines. >> i'm a strong believer in the free market. i'd like to see npr rework its business model and begin to compete for all of its income. npr already receives a huge amount of funding from private individuals and organizations through donations and sponsorships. npr can and should be entirely supported with private sources. >> for those who complain they don't want content to be one way or the other on the political spectrum but to be honest and fair, the right wing republicans are trying to impose their view of what npr should be saying in the content of their programming. >> sreenivasan: the vote did not include funding for the corporation for public broadcasting, which supports both npr and pbs. the house already voted to eliminate all of that funding, but the senate refused to go along. the house rejected a bid to withdraw all u.s. forces from afghanistan by year's end. it failed overwhelmingly. earlier this week, general david petraeus, the top u.s. and nato commander in afghanistan, warned against passing the resolution. he said the taliban and al qaeda would view it as a victory. in pakistan, intelligence officials reported u.s. drone aircraft killed 38 people today in missile strikes. they hit a compound in north waziristan, near the afghan border. the tribal region is a sanctuary for the taliban and al qaeda. initial reports said the targets were allied with a powerful taliban commander. later, the pakistani army chief said it was a peaceful meeting of tribal elders. he called the attack "unjustified and intolerable". those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: as we've seen, there's been incredible resilience among japan's citizens, and at the same time, growing confusion about exactly how serious the situation might be. we focus on some of those questions now with yuki tatsumi, a specialist in international politics and security. she's a senior associate at the stimson center, a washington think tank. >> thanks for having me. >> brown: is it clear who is in charge and how well the government has a grip on this? what do your people tell you? >> no, jeff. i don't think japanese government has a very good grip on the situation right now. and i think the fundamental problem about this current government has been that there has been a series of questions, even before this disaster hit japan, about their capability for, frankly, managing crises. >> brown: they were unpopular before this? >> oh, absolutely. the japanese wire news adjusted the approval rating survey about a week before the earthquake, and his approval rating is below 20%, which is very low. >> brown: we were seeing in some of the itn reports, people very clear about their lack of ability, the lack of credibility of the government. do you see this as a widespread public attitude. the government's response at this point? >> i tend to believe so. although, i would caveat in a way that it's not that they're completely-- they completely distrust what the government says but i think there definitely is a question that the government may not be telling the whole truth, that everything that they know, everything the public needs to know and wants to know. >> brown: there is a lot of history here. help fill us in. there is, of course, world war ii,, u but there is also a lot of history of nuclear power, energy in japan, questions of security and safety. talk about some of that. >> obviously, at the end of world war ii, japan was a target of new nuclear bomb attacks by the united states and allied forces, and that created a very song adverse reaction toward this whole concept of nuclear energy, atomic bomb in general. but at the same time, japan is a very resource-poof country so they have been importing over 95% of their oil supply from the middle east and there always is a demand to diversify the energy resources. and the nuclear power is one of such sources. in fact, japan's, the percentage of nuclear power that is occupied in japan's complete, total electricity output is about 30%, which is quite high among industrialized countries. but at the same time, there's always been a question about why whereto put those nuclear plants whether the nuclear plants are safe. there has been, like the previous segment, the commentator suggested, there has been an issue of safety and accidents, and the japanese government at that time, and also tokyo electric power company, who runs these nuclear power plants have not been forthcoming exactly. >> brown: there is a history even on that secretary. >> js. >> brown: there is a wariness already built in to official statements. >> yes. and i think the japanese government's first instinct is to try to convince people not to panic. and that's why sometimes the tone of their announcements are subdued-- i don't mean to say that they are treating it less seriously than they actually are. but the way of delivering the information is-- they have the clear sense in my mind they do not want the public to panic, but in this case, more information is the better, more timely information is the better. and japanese government has not been quite doing that. so i think it is actually aggravating public anxiety. >> brown: now overbroadly, because of course there are multiple calamities here. what can you tell-- it's early still, but even anecdotally from family and friends you talk to it would be an incredible shock for any society. what are you hearing about how people are taking it, accepting it, dealing with it? >> well, thankfully, all my friends ask family are in the immediate tokyo metropolitan area so i have been in contact with most of them so far. and actually, my husband also is in tokyo at this moment. so we have been trying to talk as much as possible. but on the day of the earthquake entire phone lines were down, the cell phones were not work. the only person i was able to get through was my mother who has a conventional, landline old phone. and my husband's cell phone, i was not able to get through until very much later that day, and even now, when my husband tries call me in the united states, he has to try-- makes repeated attempts. so it's still clearly an issue in terms of telecommunication infrastructure. and, also, i hear anecdotes from him that, you know, my mother-in-law tries to fill up the gas and she had to wait for about four to five hours to fill up the gas. >> brown: not used to that in an affluent, very wealthy country. >> they are not. they are very used to prompt, ontime service so that is quite an anomaly. and one more thing-- especially the people in urban areas are used to having abundant electricity, abundant resources, abundant water. so even the rolling blackout that you actually do hear about in this country every summer, it's completely new to them, also. >> brown: all right, an enormous challenge, even when you're not bearing the brunt of it. yuki tatsumi, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: troops loyal to moammar qaddafi surrounded a key town in eastern libya today as the united nations security council moved toward possible action. ray suarez has that story. >> suarez: artillery shells rained down on ajdabiya today in a heavy, sustained attack, that left 30 dead and at least 80 wounded, according to local hospitals. the attack left the town badly damaged. it's now surrounded by pro- qaddafi forces. ajdabiya was seen as the gateway to an expected assault on the rebels' de facto capital, benghazi, just 100 miles to the north. qaddafi's warplanes have already launched air strikes near benghazi. the rebels have claimed they've shot down two of the government planes and launched their own air raids. pro-qaddafi forces were also said to be preparing new attacks on misrata, 130 miles from the libyan capital, tripoli, and the rebels' last stronghold in the west. meanwhile, the libyan army said it would halt operations on sunday to give the remaining rebels a last chance to surrender. qaddafi's rapid advance reverberated in washington, where top u.s. officials stepped up calls for action. >> part of our national interest is avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe in libya. that's not something that's shared only by the united states. that's why there needs to be an international response with active arab participation. >> suarez: after days of hesitation about establishing a no-fly zone, u.s. officials are now talking about an effort on land, sea, and air to protect libyan civilians. the arab league has already endorsed imposing a no-fly zone over the country. and the u.n. security council debated that and other proposals today, as france, britain and the u.s. pressed for a decision. >> suarez: for more, we're joined by colum lynch, who covers the united nations for "the washington post." he also writes a blog, "turtle bay," at foreignpolicy.com. colum, what's the latest? has the vote occurred in the security council. >> now the security council council right now is preparing for a vote. we're waiting to see, expecting a divided council, but still expecting the vote to go through. >> suarez: final language for the resolution has come out. if it is passed, what would it commit the united states to do? >> it wouldn't commit them to do anything but it would give the member states authority to do all sorts of things militarily. this is sweeping military enforcement language, states can use all necessary measures, including the use of force, to try to prevent military engagements by the libyans in benghazi. it can intervene to stop any suspected attacks by the libyan government against civilians. so it's quite sweeping language, imposes a no-fly zone, and allows foreign air forces to use force to implement that. >> suarez: the resolution as it exists right now makes liberal use of the word "civilians" in it. what-- but do they mean the people who are in fact combatants, people without uniform but who have arms and are fighting the libyan government? >> i mean, the reality of this resolution is while the language talks about the protection of civilians, the effect that it would have would be placing key states, including those who participate in this operation-- the u.s., the your peeps, some of the arab states-- squarely on the side of the rebel army. there's a call in this resolution for a cease-fire. it's included in the language at the request of the russians. but everything else in that language seems like it's pretty clearly designed to tip the balance of power into the hands of the rebels and against qaddafi. >> suarez: you mentioned the russians. did members of the security council try to weaken the language of the resolution and will that get more votes in return? >> well, it looks like-- i mean, it looks like the negotiations are pretty much over and they will have a vote any second now. the russians have throughout the negotiations on libya, tried to restrain the west, to carve out any language which would give military authority to the americans, the europeans, or any members of the arab league that participate in this operation. they were successful in an earlier round of negotiations on a previous resolution imposing sanctions. they haven't been successful, and as a result of this, it looks like the council, which voted 15-0 the last time, will be divided. it doesn't sound like there's going to be a veto at this point. you never know. but it looks like they might be up to 5 abstentions. >> suarez: what's the difference between an abstention is a no vote? >> there's no difference in terms of the legal authority it gives to those who are conducting the operation. but, you know, you've got to consider that the states that are considering abstaining represent up to 60% of the world's population. so it doesn't send a good political signal that the world is united around this operation. and if it's a long, arduous military campaign that stretches out over time, that lack of kind of unified support could backfire on the-- on those engaging in this operation. >> suarez: and finally, colum, has the american position on this resolution changed in recent days, or even recent hours? >> the american position has been very hard to read over the last couple of weeks. they have seemed very skeptical about the prospects of no-fly zone, asking lots of question in the council, and suddenly last night they became very assertive introduced language calling, as you mentioned, for operations on land, sea, and air. and they have now tried to associate themselves with the sort of more combattive approach to this problem. >> suarez: well, we're getting word from the united nations that the vote is under way. so far, there are 10 votes for the resolution. colum lynch, thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me, ray. >> brown: tonight, europe's debt problems pay a call on the white house. margaret warner has that story. >> there's just an incredible bond between our two countries, and that's one we want to reaffirm today. >> warner: there were shamrocks, but not many smiles, when president obama welcomed new irish prime minister enda kenny today for a traditional st. patrick's day visit. mr. obama did promise to visit ireland, birthplace of his great-great-great grandfather, in may. >> we've make sure your visit is warmly received and generously treated, and if you want to play a round of golf, i'd be happy to. >> i hear the taieseach is pretty good, so i've got to be careful. i may have to be good to play with him. >> warner: but just eight days into the job, the irish prime minister has a deadly serious purpose on this trip-- to bolster his debt-battered country's international standing, especially with american business investors in ireland. ireland's once booming economy-- the "celtic tiger" of the mid-'90s, attracted some 600 american multinationals. but in 2008, its speculative real estate market went bust, and its free-lending banks nearly did, too, until the dublin government poured billions of euros into the banking system. before long, it was dublin that needed a bailout, a $93 billion rescue package last november from the european union and international monetary fund. tough austerity measures-- budget cuts and tax hikes-- deepened the recession and spiked unemployment. in every meeting this week, including with the president and congressional leaders, kenny has pounded home the message-- with help from its friends and continued investment, ireland's coming back. he did the same last night at a black tie charity dinner with politicians and corporate c.e.o.s. >> please stand by ireland. we've got a new mandate and new set of priorities and a new commitment, a new energy to face down the challenges our country faces economically. >> warner: kenny made no bones about his aim when we caught up with him yesterday outside his washington hotel. >> what i want to say is, first of all, ireland's open for business. we want to restore our international reputation, which has taken some hits in recent years. we want to say to the american people that we will work with the united states as we always did. we want to do business both ways across the atlantic. >> warner: but kenny needs to woo europe more than he needs to charm america, as the e.u. struggles to keep ireland and other debtor members from bringing down its common currency, the euro. kenny is on a campaign to convince his e.u. counterparts that the interest rate on ireland's bailout package is too high. >> is it feasible for the irish people to continue to pay what we regard as penal rates of 5.8% in recapitalizing our banks? the problem and the legacy we've been left with from the previous administration is that the cost of the bank bailout has been heaped onto the sovereign debt, which makes it very difficult for the people to be able to pay their way to grow our economy, to trade our way out of these difficulties. so i've been explaining that to our colleagues in europe, >> warner: lara marlowe, washington correspondent for "the irish times," says kenny needs europe's help to pull ireland out of its 15% unemployment rate slump. >> the bailout is killing them. i mean, the economy is in a perilous state, unemployment-- actually, my newspaper this morning reported almost 15%. he needs a little bit of relief on the interest rate so that standard of living doesn't continue to go down, so that they can actually sort of kick- start a recovery, get the economy going. >> warner: but it's been an uphill struggle. at kenny's first e.u. meeting last week, germany's angela merkel and france's nicolas sarkozy said they'd consider easing the bailout interest rate, but only if dublin will raise the very low irish corporate tax rate that has attracted so many foreign companies. merkel said as much to reporters afterwards. >> it will be very clear that there always needs to be some sort of quid pro quo. >> warner: so far, kenny is pushing back. >> the 12.5% corporate tax rate, is fundamental to ireland and will not be changed. we're going to give absolute clarity on the language around that. we've always supported our european colleagues over 40 years and we want to continue to do that. but we've got a problem here, and i want to make it clear, and i've made it clear to our other european leaders. ireland wants to pay its way. ireland wants to play its part. ireland will live up to its responsibilities. but we need some assistance in getting to that target. >> warner: marlowe says it's an article of faith among the irish public of all parties that if the corporate tax rate goes up, u.s. and other multinationals might pull out. >> it would be a huge comedown for him to budge on it. it was part of the election campaign. he just came to office. he's got to stick with it. >> warner: she believes kenny is calculating that as much as ireland needs a generous europe, europe needs an ireland that doesn't default on its debt. >> the consequences for the rest of the euro group would be enormous. so france and germany, who are the two powerhouses of europe, cannot afford to let that happen. ireland is asking for europe to share the burden. and if they won't share in the responsibility, obviously, the danger of a default is much greater. >> warner: it's a bargaining chip kenny is likely to try to play when e.u. leaders gather for a summit on europe's sovereign debt crisis in brussels late next week. >> woodruff: we'll be back shortly with a tom bearden report on a project using satellites to stop genocide. but first, is pledge week on pbs. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> brown: for those stations not taking a pledge break, we hear a unique voice from minnesota. here, in her own words, is minneapolis playwright and actor aditi brennan kapeel. >> there's an international element to my writing always. the last play i wrote was bilingual, in english and american sign language, because i find language to be such a compelling lens into the human conditions. and this play is also multilingual. they're also very layered and complex. i will own that. i'm aditi brennan kapeel, and i'm a playwriting and a director and actress and i've been in the twin cities for many, many years and as a playwright i have been working nationally. i'm a immigrant. my father was from india and my mother was from bulgaria and they emigrated to sweden. when i went to college, i came here. i went to we move from one place where we're a certain kind of person to another place where all of a sudden everything around us tells us we're a different kind of person. a lot of this play comes for me from just my thinking about the immigrant experience, from how i feel myself be recontextualized when i get on a plane in sweden and i leave and i land in minneapolis, all of a sudden-- like i feel like the person they that i am here is quite separate from the person i am there from the person i am in bulgaria where i'm still treated like the cousin and when you get treated like that, you're like yes, ma'am. and all of that is mixed into this pot and became this play. >> i play the character of agnes, and she's an immigrant from liberia, and has been in the country for a few years. a lot of times with plays, you get the material and you get a chance to work on it, do table work and sort of unpack what it's about, what it could be about. but sometimes, actually often, there's a lot of guessing, and decision that you have to make because the playwright is not in the room. it's been really nice to have yaditi at the table and fills in the blanks with a lot of guesswork. >> agnes is a liberian immigrant who came to the u.s. many years ago and she's been work as a home care worker, and her closest human connection is with with her son who is back home in liyear bieria ask she's sending money home and providing him with an education which she couldn't afford if she remained in lib beeria. it is an ensemble but it is her journey that is a catalyst for all the journeys. >> of course i want to be here. i want to see you every day. but i want you to have a good bloody life, too, all right. the money, the money you make in america. i ask you-- how you can say don't go? >> yaditi's character, her writing, it has complexity and n a way that's really tangible. you can touch it. you know, it's raw, visceral, but it also makes you work. >> people like you, who come to the circus, sit in the audience and laugh and before going home safe and sound. >> that's the first character who got create in order play and he is a hybrid of my hard-drinking uncle in bulgaria, and the circus ringmaster they saw when i took my daughter to a circus in bulgaria, and my dad, who drove the subway train for many years at the end of his life in stockholm, sweden. and he is the subway driver who has very little connection with anyone else in his life, but he will entertain himself and happy is a very young indian man who is very recently arrived in america and is trying very hard to make a good impression and has been assigned to him as a trainee. >> who are you? >> i'm happy. >> get off my train. >> we met yesterday, right? >> i got lucky enough to have an artistic home here. almost immediately after graduating from college, the artistic director of "mixed blood" cast me in something and over the years i became one of his company. it's an informal company but i became someone that works here often and i think this is my artistic home as a result. and also i had the playwright center. i got lucky twice. i'm blown away by the number of theaters that take on my work because it's not easy. it's not easy to cast. it's not easy to fulfill all of the technical requirements but they're complex stharz feel reflect the world that we live in. i also feel that theater audiences can sustain a more challenging aesthetic than we sometimes think they can. i think we can bring in a deep, dense soundscape and have multiple languages and have the experience of that be fulfilling and exciting. and i think people who go to theater are willing to work. they're willing to work for their-- for their "ah-ha" moment. >> brown: this story was produced by angie prindle of mn original, a production of twin cities public television. >> woodruff: trying to stop genocide by taking pictures from space. newshour correspondent tom bearden has the story. >> reporter: analysts say this picture documents the deliberate burning of some 300 residential buildings in the abyei region of sudan. it was taken by a privately- owned satellite for an organization called satellite sentinel, and then posted on the internet. satellite sentinel says it shows a fresh wave of violence in the hotly contested region between south sudan, which just voted for independence, and the government in the north. some of these areas are effectively off limits to journalists, and sometimes the public never sees ground level footage of what's happening in places like this. in this case, however, satellite sentinel managed to obtain this video confirming that parts of two villages over-flown by the satellite were indeed burned. the hope is that distributing these images might prevent the violence from escalating. jonathan hutson is the communications director for the enough project, one of several activist groups supporting satellite sentinel. >> well, for the first time outside the national security sector, non-profits are now making use of high resolution satellite imagery to track the buildup and movements of troops near a border. we can keep an eye on it and give some early warning to the world, and give people a chance to get involved, to pressure policy makers, to press for quick and immediate responses. >> reporter: hutson says actor george clooney came up with the idea to keep an eye on sudan last year after he toured the southern region while people were voting for independence. the ongoing fear is that the sudanese military will try to use force to prevent the separation that voters approved overwhelmingly. clooney and other hollywood figures provided $750,000 to operate the surveillance project for the first six months. hutson says the sudanese government has taken notice. >> after we launched the project on december 29, the government of sudan put out an official press release, and they decried clooney for being a celebrity activist and for using his name, his cash, and his clout to focus world attention on the tense situation to try and get help. they didn't like it one bit, but then you cant please all the war criminals all the time. >> reporter: just a decade ago, the ability to take high resolution pictures from space was the exclusive province of governments. but in 2000, private companies like digital globe started launching their own eyes in the sky. the longmont, colorado, based company suffered two failures aboard russian rockets before a successful launch aboard a u.s. vehicle. satellite sentinel is one of many clients that tell digital globe where to look, and then purchases the resulting pictures. the company operates its three satellites from this control room about 60 miles north of denver. this is also where the images are first analyzed. some of the employees who do those assessments used to work for government agencies. steve woods is vice president of the analysis center. he says there's an even larger goal-- to prevent future crimes against humanity. >> the satellite sentinel project is designed to see events before they will happen, and to make sure that the world knows that it's watching, and this time, to try and do what we can as a... really as a group to try and prevent another genocide, another event like darfur. really, the strength of what commercial satellite imagery can do is it provides greater openness and transparency, because the data is unclassified and can be shared. >> reporter: digital globe is also keeping an electronic eye on the entire region, documenting the uprisings in several north african countries. >> so this is the state tv and radio building in downtown cairo, the scene of quite a few of the protests, and you can see here these are all tanks and apcs and a roadblock down there, as well, where they've set up a perimeter all around this facility. and so, very clearly, with the detailed resolution of our imagery, you're able to get a very good and accurate perspective on just what the context of the scene is. >> reporter: woods says the resolution is good enough to pick out this specific group of people in pearl square in manama, bahrain. >> interestingly enough, there's a very large group forming up here in this dark area. this dark area here is what we believe are actually women dressed in burqas. >> reporter: hutson says, for the first time, ordinary people can have access to near real- time information on the world's most dangerous places. >> we're not telling the president of the united states something he doesn't already know. we're not telling the leaders of other nations something they don't already know through their own satellites. what's new and transformative here is that we can share high resolution commercial satellite imagery from digital globe, so that you can see the same information that lands on the presidents desk during his daily sudan briefings. >> reporter: the enough project reports that the people who live in abyei region of sudan are now fleeing their homes for villages further south. they've issued an urgent call for action. all of these images, now distributed through social media and the internet, are tools helping shape public opinion, which is proving to be an increasingly powerful force here and abroad. >> brown: again, the major developments of the day: emergency crews in japan used helicopters, fire trucks and water cannons to try to douse overheated reactors at a damaged nuclear plant. president obama said there is no danger of radiation from japan drifting to any part of the u.s. the u.n. security council authorized a no-fly zone and other measures in libya as muammar qaddafi's graups other measures in libya as muammar qaddafi's graups surrounded a key eastern town. who is it?! >> oil companies have changed my country. >> oil companies can make a difference. >> we have the chance to build the economy. >> create jobs, keep people healthy and improve schools. >> ... and our 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captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: radiation levels spiked in the area around japan's damaged fukushima nuclear plant today, forcing emergency workers to temporarily abandon the facility, as tens of thousands of homeless struggled with snows and bitter cold. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on efforts to control the growing crisis in japan, including the stories of survivors and rescue crews in towns virtually wiped out by the tsunami. >> woodruff: we examine the health risks from the radiation spewing from the reactors and being carried by the wind far from japan's shores. >> ifill: plus, kwame holman looks at the u.s. nuclear energy industry in the context of japan's current crisis. >> woodruff: then, jeffrey brown updates the conflict in libya, as moammar qaddafi's forces move against key rebel strongholds. >> ifill: and science correspondent miles o'brien reports on nasa's next deep space ambitions, including a journey to the planet closest to the sun. >> we'll take you to mercury and beyond. you know, the solar system is not the same place you learned about in grade school. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: in 1968, as whaling continued worldwide, the first recordings of humpback songs were released. ( whale singing ) public reaction led to international bans. whale populations began to recover. at pacific life, the whale symbolizes what is possible if people stop and think about the future. help protect your future with pacific life-- the power to help you succeed. ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: japan's nuclear crisis deepened today, as radiation levels jumped at a badly damaged nuclear plant. and for millions who survived last week's earthquake and tsunami, winter storms added misery to nuclear fears and the struggle for food, water and basic comforts. we have a series of reports from "independent television news," beginning with alex thomson, who traveled today to the town of kamaishi. >> reporter: army aid convoys heading east over the central mountains into the quake zone this morning. several japanese have asked me what have we done to deserve an historically powerful earthquake this vast tsunami damage and now the bliz archdiocese?" with officials here now saying more than 4,000 people are confirmed dead, we've come to the east coast so-to-see how far search-and-rescue for bodies has gone in this vast area of damage. our driver, shin, just can't believe what he's seeing. he was last here on holiday several years ago. >> ( translated ): the tsunami reached up there. there's only five homes left up there. all the rest are destroyed. >> reporter: at the coast, we meet hiromi and his plea to the wider world, that of so many here "it's freezing, we need blankets but much more with." >> ( translated ): let's be frank, i need a bath and stuff like that. but i know it's too much to ask. it's so cold here. we need kerosene and we need petrol. >> reporter: we had seen towns wrecked, factories pulverized but never roads, bridges, and the vast anti-tsunami sea defenses here at kamaishi smashed like they were today. and hiromi had been good enough to explain to us exactly what happened here six days ago. it was about half an hour after the last of the earth tremors finished. people noticed that this entire bay began simply emptying with water. the tide went out way beyond the red hulk of the wrecked ship you can see there, out even beyond the lighthouse which you can just see sticking up in the snow. the entire bay was emptied of water and it stayed that way for some moments. then people living here describe an enormous rushing, roaring sound. it was the tsunami approaching 15, 20 miles an hour pushing everything before it. right up, right through this bay. the people living in the village in the corner there, many of them stayed put. they'd never had problems with tsunamis before, they'd come and gone, no issue. on this occasion, things were very different. we decided to try and get there. clearly, no vehicles are going anywhere near. and look at the size of these supposed tsunami defenses. high enough, thick enough, long enough-- so everybody thought. an entire town stripped away to the elaborate foundations of houses designed to withstand earthquakes, yes, but a tsunami of this scale certainly not. we finally reached the part of the town where local people had fled, many stayed believing they'd be safe. family property and effects strewn around everywhere, demonstrating these people's faith in the vast ramparts of their sea walls was fatally misplaced. just look at it. there is no way you can gate vehicle anywhere near this village. walking in is bad enough. it's pretty clear this village has not been reached. and i have to tell you, there is a fairly strong smell of decay coming from the buildings behind me, particularly that garage just there. one small example in one small village of the enormous job here in japan simply to locate the bodies let alone begin clearing up this mess. >> ifill: many japanese have been leaving the ravaged northeast coast, partly over radiation fears, and partly to find shelter. others are trying to help locate those who disappeared in friday's disaster. angus walker reports from the town of miyako, where the search continues. >> reporter: miyako, a fishing port where the harbor offered no sanctuary. aer if i have now marooned in the middle of town. you'd be forgiven for thinking this is a war zone. instead, it's a place where soldiers are battling to find victims of nature's forces. more than a thousand are missing it took the japanese army three days to get to miyako. they're still here, still searching for bodies. and the weather conditions are getting worse. this town can only be reached by mountainous roads. the sergeant tells me they've pulled ten people out alive since monday and if they only find one more, it will all still be worth it. this was the moment the tsunami smashed through miyako's defenses. a boat is slammed into a bridge. the waters had receded, exposing the destruction in their wake. now you get a real sense of the terrifying scale of this disaster. so much water poured over the sea wall that it hit the bottom of the bridge which must be around 30 feet above me. these are the lists of the living. more than 5,000 in emergency shelters. and this woman is one of japan's countless good samaritans. she has collected the names of the missing posted on the internet. she's come here hoping to find people she doesn't know on behalf of people she's never met. >> it is just horrible. it is a nightmare what's happened. i can't say anything. >> reporter: and all along japan's northeastern coast the nightmare never seems to end. >> woodruff: while the search went on for the living and the dead, the potential for a nuclear nightmare hung over japan for another day. a radiation surge sent levels to 300 times normal just south of the stricken fukushima plant. the levels dropped as the day went on. u.s. nuclear officials reported all the water has boiled away from a pool holding spent fuel rods-- a claim the japanese denied. but the plant owner said it's close to connecting a new power line to restore the plant's cooling system. sarah smith has more on the day's nuclear developments. >> reporter: helicopters carrying water to try to cool down an overheated nuclear reactor look like a pretty desperate last measure. it looks even worse when the choppers get turned back because there's too much radiation in the air already. you can see the smoke or steam that's pouring out of reactor number three. that's the most worrying development of the day. >> ( translated ): it burst out as smoke. it was very concentrated and when it was measured, it was highly radioactive. >> reporter: the power company now has to admit how dangerous the situation is, showing pictures of what two fires have done to reactor four. inside here, a small number of workers are left, putting themselves in danger trying to prevent a much greater catastrophe. even they had to evacuate for part of the day as radiation levels erupted. anxious citizens watched the news everywhere. they don't even know the names of the people still working inside fukushima, the human shields are japan's last defense against a full nuclear meltdown. then the emperor himself made very rare appearance on t.v. saying he's deeply concerned about the nuclear situation because it's so uncertain and he hopes with the help of those who remained at the plant things will not get worse. some people leaving the area around the nuclear plant are testing positive for radiation. thiman fled from fukushima to tokyo. he told me and our translator he's worried he might have been can tamm nated but he can't get any hospital to test him. >> ( translated ): we can't see the radiation and even the tiniest amount could affect our health so no matter how far away i go, i don't feel safe. >> reporter: government instructions to evacuate the danger zone are repeated on the giant screen. people watching in tokyo find it hard to accept the official assurances that they are safe here. another thing that has people really worried is the feeling that they don't know f they can believe what their own government is telling them. normally, no country on earth has as much faith in its leaders and in its parliament as the japanese do. but now in the midst of this crisis, people are loudly complaining that the government is giving them contradictory information and that they're getting mixed messages about what's safe and what's not. and that's left everybody worried that the government's actually trying to hide the real truth. this eminent radiologist feels even he is being kept in the dark, and not just because of the continuing power cuts. think it is government is not telling people the whole truth. >> ( translated ): maybe the government isn't telling us everything because they are worried the country will panic. but people aren't stupid. if they were given a full explanation of what's happening, then they could make informed decisions. >> reporter: the french government thinks they have enough information to instruct all their nationals to leave tokyo. many multinationals are moving their staff out of the city while japanese residents are simply being told to keep calm and carry on. even in the face of an ongoing nuclear disaster that is worse than any other except chernobyl. >> woodruff: still to come on the "newshour": libyan forces loyal to qaddafi retake towns held by rebels and nasa goes to mercury. but first, with the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: the tokyo stock market rebounded today, but it wasn't enough to boost wall street. worries over japan's nuclear crisis sent the dow jones industrial average plunging 242 points to close at 11,613. the nasdaq fell 50 points to close at 2,616. the u.s. environmental protection agency has announced the first national limits on mercury pollution. the regulations laid out today are part of efforts to cut emissions from coal-fired power plants. advocates say the pollution contributes to birth defects and other problems. industry groups say the e.p.a. is inflating the benefits and under-stating the costs. power plants would have four years to comply, once the rules take effect. security forces in bahrain used tear gas and armored vehicles today to clear a central square in manama. at least five people were killed in the assault on protesters in pearl square. demonstrators' tents were also set on fire, sending plumes of smoke rising above the city. in washington, a spokesman said president obama telephoned bahrain's leaders to deliver this message. >> there is no military solution to the problems in bahrain. there is no means of violence that will solve the unrest in the region, in any country, and that the future of those countries will be immeasurably brighter if the governments there engage in a political dialogue with the people. in yemen, government supporters attacked thousands of opposition demonstrators in sanaa with bullets, clubs, and daggers. hundreds of people were wounded. u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton visited the spawning ground for egypt's revolution today. clinton made an unscheduled stop in tahrir square in cairo, surrounded by heavy security and crowds. she greeted bystanders, and urged egypt's military rulers to carry out real democratic reforms. the secretary warned against letting anyone hijack the revolution. she promised the u.s. will help in any way it can. an american who says he killed two pakistani men in self- defense has been released from jail in pakistan. raymond davis had worked as a cia contractor. pakistani officials said he was let go after the victims' families received $2.3 million. secretary of state clinton denied washington made the payments. the u.s. insisted davis was covered by diplomatic immunity. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: the nuclear scare went global today. as australia, germany, russia and other countries urged their citizens to leave tokyo and northern japan. the u.s. embassy recommended americans stay outside a 50-mile radius of the nuclear plant or take shelter indoors. by contrast, japanese officials have announced zones that extend to 20 miles for their civilians. u.s. troops were also told to stay 50 miles away and crews and equipment that flew over or near the nuclear plant were checked for signs of radiation. in washington, the head of the nuclear regulatory commission said emergency workers inside the plant are in grave danger. >> we believe that around the reactor site that there are high levels of radiation. it would be very difficult for emergency workers to get near to the reactors. the doses they could experience would potentially be lethal doses in a very short period of time. >> ifill: there's been much discussion about the radiation and health risks near the plant, the outlying areas and farther away. we try to make some sense of it now with lake barrett, a nuclear engineer and consultant who directed the clean-up of three mile island for the nuclear regulatory commission. and norman kleiman, a professor of environmental health sciences at columbia university's mailman school of public health in new york. his work focuses on exposure to radiation. blake, you have been involved in something similar to this for some time ago now. give us a sense of what's happening in that plant right now. >> well, the workers are coping with a very challenging, very difficult situation there at fukushima. they have three reactors cores that have been overheated and rubble and is probably partially melting in the cores. i believe those cores are stable at the moment with fire hoses and fire connections they have for the reactors. the most immediate concern is the two spent fuel pools in unit four and unit three. those apparently have overheated and there's been hydrogen released, explosions, some of the buildings have been damaged severely. and they're working very hard to try to contain that radioactivity as we speak. >> ifill: norman kleiman, we talk about the effects of radiation exposure. what distinction has the u.s. government drawn between saying there should be a 50 mile radius of safety for u.s. citizens and the japanese government is suggesting only a 20-mile radius. >> i think our government is being prudent and careful and conservative in its estimates about radiation exposure and not wanting to expose any individuals, any u.s. citizens to risk. i think it's a little difficult in the absence of concrete data and information for the u.s. government and the japanese government to actually know what the real risks are. they're just trying to be extra conservative and cautious in protecting the health of the populations. >> ifill: mr. kleiman, as they come up with these guidelines what's the distinction between advising people to stay indoors and advising people to get out all together? >> there are several ways to protect oneself's against ionizing radiation exposure. certainly shielding. so behind a barrier, the concrete, the wood, the brick of buildings affords some protection. distance affords some protection which is why the exclusion zone has been increased. and time. the dose rate and amount of time one is exposed to radiation. so ilt needs to be calculated and in the absence of knowing what the types of isotopes being released are, it's difficult to give hard data on what a safe level is. i think everyone is being very cautious and conservative. >> ifill: it is difficult to figure out but the thing most scientists seem to agree on is that this has now exceeded the danger that was at three mile island. is that your sense of it as well? >> yes, it is. >> ifill: so what do people do? what are the risks? how are they manifested for individuals who are either nearby or within the plant or even across the ocean? >> well, the people at the plant are trained nuclear professionals working very hard under very difficult conditions. radiation levels are high. it's... they have to wear protective suits and respirators. it's very difficult. but they are trained to understand the risks involved working with radioactive materials. the immediate people around the site, which is most affected, have been evacuated and you'll be reading reports of contamination and radiation levels and those will go up quite some distance from the plant but i believe if the people follow the directions of the government, i think from the health point of view i think they will be at very low risk. >> ifill: mr. kleiman, when we hear about risk and how the risk is manifested, do we know... is this an immediate risk? are the people who are there nearby immediately see signs of radiation poisoning or exposure or this something that only surfaces eventually? >> those workers in the plant themselves, if they're exposed to significant levels of radiation, will experience what's called acute radiation syndrome. these are at much higher levels than what's been reported since so far, but symptoms such as nausea, gastrointestinal distress and a change in their bone marrow. these occur at doses of about 8.8 sieverts to one sievert. that's not been reported so far but we can presume that there are levels inside the plant, hopefully regions that the plant workers are not in right now, where those levels are present. for the general population, as distance increases, radiation exposure drops dramatically and based on the figures we've been given it's unlikely anyone would have any kind of symptoms from radiation exposure outside of the immediate vicinity of the plant. >> ifill: we are all exposed to some degree of radiation in our daily lives. how's the magnitude in this case different he? >> well, the earth is a radioactive place. it was radioactive before mankind was on this earth. so we are all exposed to natural radiation everyday. we're also exposed to man made radiation for medical exposures. in this plant are extremely high radiation levels that can be deadly if they're not properly managed. once you get away, yes, there will be increased risk due to increased radiation from the plant but i think the levels will be below those you would find in medical procedures. millions of people have medical procedures such as x-rays or diagnostic work done that involves radioactive materials and it's not a huge health risk. i would say this is not a health catastrophe but it's certainly an industrial catastrophe in the plant. >> ifill: so this run, mr. kleiman, we've been seeing on iodide pills, they're supposed to be some sort of... ameliorate whatever problem which crops. is that reasonable? >> probably not. iodide pills poe perot text against a unique kind of cancer that can be caused by radiation, thyroid cancer and they're only effective if they're taking immediately preceding a radiation exposure. certainly within the first 24 hours preceding an exposure. there's absolutely no evidence for anyone in the united states or hawaii or even in the area surrounding the plant that there have been increased levels of radioactive die dine that are of concern to the general population so while it may make people feel more comfortable, psychological benefit, the overall benefit is very low. >> ifill: there is some concern on the west coast that something in this cloud, something in this plume could, as the wind drives it across the pacific, it could end up here. >> that's virtually a zero risk type of situation. i don't think the people in california should be concerned one bit about it. >> ifill: and the people in tokyo? >> tokyo is quite a ways away and i don't think the people in tokyo should be worried, either, unless... if they follow the instructions they will get from their government as time goes on technical health risks are extremely low. i would consider it safe in tokyo. >> ifill: i do have to ask you this question because you were involved in the three mile island cleanup and there were a lot of things we didn't know about for years. is that going to be the case as well here? >> well, clearly what's going on this is the fog of war in an industrial accident. the people at the plant are dealing with. information flow is terrible to everybody. people are frustrated. they want to know what's going on but there's no way we can know when we're not in the plant itself and even those working in the plant is very difficult. so lessons learned on what happened and make things better and go forward and do a lot of cleanup but i don't believe this is a health catastrophe. >> ifill: lake barrett, norman kleiman, thank you for helping make sense of it all. >> woodruff: the nuclear crisis in japan is raising questions in the united states and elsewhere about whether to bank on more nuclear power for the future. in the u.s. alone, there are applications pending for 20 new reactors. "newshour" correspondent kwame holman reports. >> reporter: before last friday, nuclear power had been undergoing a rebirth of sorts-- a process that took decades following two catastrophes: the 1986 chernobyl disaster-- the worst accident ever-- and the 1979, 3-mile island partial meltdown in pennsylvania. but in recent years, nuclear has been heralded by the industry, many elected officials and some environmentalists as a clean and safe alternative to fossil fuels in a warming world. now, as technicians do battle at the crippled, 40-year-old fukushima dai-ichi reactors, prospects for developing nuclear energy worldwide are facing new questions. china said today it will suspend new plant approvals. and several european nations have powered down plants for safety checks, among them: germany. chancellor angela merkel yesterday: >> ( translated ): those nuclear plants which started running before the end of the year 1980 will be taken offline. >> reporter: there has been no talk of such a move from the obama administration. in the u.s., 104 nuclear power plants produce just less than 20% of the nation's total electricity load. but near those facilities, some residents worry about safety amid natural disasters. from san clemente, on california's coast: >> they're saying this ten-foot wall is going to hold a tsunami but i think differently. i think a tsunami is going to go right on over. >> reporter: to florida: >> i really feel like it could be catastrophic should we have natural disasters that are beyond our control. how we would contain this energy? >> holman: the topic of u.s. nuclear safety was one of many discussed by secretary of energy steven chu this morning during a house hearing on his department's budget. lawmakers searched for comparisons to the events unfolding across the pacific. >> the japan incidents actually appear to be more serious than three mile island. to what extent, we don't know now. >> reporter: chu said his department had dispatched teams to japan to monitor the crisis and assist the japanese. they also hope to apply lessons- learned here. >> what we want to do is look at what happened in japan and say, and look to whether we would be more vulnerable to a cascade of multiple events and how they might compromise safety. >> reporter: of particular interest to lawmakers, japan uses many reactors similar to those operating in the united states. a new power-generating u.s. reactor has not come online in 15 years and no new ground has been broken for a facility in more than twice that time. in september, president obama said nuclear must be part of an energy and climate strategy. >> if we're concerned about global warming and greenhouse gasses, nuclear energy is a legitimate fuel-- energy source that the japanese and the french have been using much more intelligently than we have. >> reporter: secretary chu reaffirmed the administration's commitment nuclear power today. as part of his budget, mr. obama proposed $36 billion in loan guarantees to help build as many as 20 new, nuclear plants. that follows on the 2005 energy bill signed by president bush, who sought to streamline the regulatory process and extend loan guarantees to the industry. the southern company has secured the sole loan guarantee under the 2005 program, to build two new reactors at a plant in georgia. construction is underway. >> ifill: now, to libya, where the opposition appears to be losing ground. jeffrey brown has that story. >> brown: thousands of people poured out of eastern libya today in a panicked rush into egypt to escape moammar qaddafi's troops. >> ( translated ): all qaddafi's forces are mercenaries and foreigners not libyans, and all libyans are united and they don't want qaddafi or anything related to him. >> brown: as they fled, another rebel stronghold was in danger of falling. the city of ajdabiyah was under assault by qaddafi's planes, tanks and troops and witnesses reported heavy damage. >> ( translated ): there is complete terror here now, everyone is frightened. >> brown: government forces had already seized ras lanouf and brega in their drive to re- conquer a region that fell into opposition hands early in the month-long uprising. the fall of ajdabiyah would open a gateway to benghazi, the major city in the east. protesters there put on a brave face today, at a rally against qaddafi's rule. at similar demonstrations this week, many insisted they would not surrender. >> we die for benghazi, even if he comes to inside benghazi here, it will be war. >> brown: closer to tripoli, the qaddafi's fighters also blasted rebels today in misrata, after retaking zawiyah in a bloody battle last week. meanwhile, the u.n. security council discussed imposing a no- fly zone on qaddafi's air force. but the libyan leader's son saif al-islam said it would do no good. >> ( translated ): military operations are over. within 48 hours, everything will be finished. our forces are almost in benghazi. whatever the decision, it will be too late. >> brown: meanwhile, secretary of state clinton in egypt today said she hopes for a u.n. vote on an international response no later than tomorrow. also today, the "new york times" reported four of its journalists are missing in libya. they disappeared tuesday while covering the rebels' retreat in the east. to update the overall situation we're joined again by dirk vandewalle. he's an associate professor of government at dartmouth college and author of "a history of modern libya." so how has qaddafi been able to seemingly turn things around and retake these towns? >> well, i think originally we had all anticipated that as the uprising proceeded that this would turn into a longer conflict which eventually this international community would have a chance to weigh in. but it now seems that the qaddafi has managed very skillfully to keep around him not only the revolutionary guards, he has also managed to keep bringing in mercenarys from subsaharan africa and overall he has simply managed also in part convincing the population in tripoli and certainly he has a number of supporters in tripoli that his political experiment is still viable and that what what he described as a fifth column, the united states and others coming in, may, indeed, be a danger to libya. so he's put all his resources, both military and ideological resources, into fighting off what he calls the invaders and, of course, that has primarily been done by the brigades headed by his two sons and that will perhaps prove instrumental if, indeed, the army now moves beyond ajdabiya toward benghazi. >> brown: speaking of benghazi just now on the wire, i don't know if you had a chance to see this, apparently the libyan army went on television tonight and issued an ultimatum to residents of the opposition... of benghazi warning them to leave rebel-held locations and weapons storage area. that sounds quite threatening. what is going on there? how strong is benghazi as an opposition capital right now? >> well, it is, indeed, a very ominous development, as you point out. the qaddafi government over the last few days has already distributed leaflets from helicopters in a number of cities in the east part of the country and saif al islam repeated that in his news conference earlier today saying those who oppose the regime, this is their last chance to get out and the way to get out is through egypt. what it means also, however is that we now have in benghazi the rep nathaniels of that uprising quite disorganized the leaders of the uprise having tried to come up with some kind of organization military organization, if at all possible but have simply proven unable to do so. so what we have in benghazi is really a ragtag army of irregulars. people who have really very little experience. there are very few experienced military men in benghazi so everybody is really worried because after and what in misurata, ajdabiya, it's clear this army by itself is not capable of withstanding what will undoubtedly be a pinscher movement if, indeed, the libyan army moves from ajdabiya along the coastal road and through a desert road into benghazi. >> brown: now in the meantime, as we watched and said in our set-up piece, there's been continued discussions and debate in the international community about a no-fly zone or other actions but nothing definitive. what is your read on that? which countries have been pushing hard? which countries have been most his tent? and where do things stand right now? >> i think the international community and particularly secretary clinton has realized-- and she indicated that in her comments today in cairo-- that in a sense a no-fly zone is no longer really sufficient because what we really face is now a final fight in benghazi that in part will only be fought with airplanes but mostly perhaps with armored units, with tanks and so on. and when secretary clinton was talking in cairo and she said that we would seek additional authorization from the international community for measures beyond the no-fly zone, in a sense she indicated that we needed to have these to really make any stands against the government forces possible so not just a no-fly zone but also sometimes what is called a no-drive zone. in other words, the ability to stop tanks and heavy artillery from moving toward benghazi. and, of course there has been an enormous amount of disagreement within the international community, the european i don't know union, the g-8 and then, of course, the security council at the united nations and it was not really until today really that a lot of... all of these support systems started to fall into place. and so when secretary clinton talked about the arab league as a sea change, she meant precisely that. that it now gives particularly the united states, i think, the ability to move forward in cooperation with the united states... with the united nations security council and hopefully to do something before this final fight for benghazi really starts in earnest. >> brown: all right, we will leave it there. dirk vandewalle, thank you once again. >> woodruff: we'll be back shortly with miles o'brien's report on nasa's mission to mercury. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a journey long in the making as a nasa spacecraft nears the planet mercury's orbit, six years after it was launched. "newshour" science correspondent miles o'brien reports on how this mission fits into a major era of planetary exploration. >> reporter: i took a stroll through our solar system the other day. it is not the same place i learned about in grade school. >> the last several decades have just been an explosion of information about the solar system. >> reporter: my guide was planetary geologist jim zimbelman with the national air and space museum. the gallery is called "beyond," based on the book by michael benson. >> i mean, that to me is remarkable that we have learned so much so quickly and its ongoing, that's the fun part. >> reporter: ongoing indeed! we may take it for granted, but planetary scientists don't. they are quick to remind us we are living in a golden age of astronomical discovery. >> it's fantastic. it's like being alive during the first exploration of north america. >> reporter: scientist sean solomon hopes to write the next chapter at the planet closest to the sun-- mercury. >> so were finishing our family notebook by going to mercury. mercury is going to tell us about how the smallest and in many ways the most extreme of the siblings of earth that was born and has evolved. >> reporter: solomon is the principal investigator for nasa's messenger spacecraft. the first spacecraft designed to enter the orbit mercury. if all goes well, it will see the planet as never before, measure its weak atmosphere and magnetic field. once volcanically active, mercury is the densest planet. a place where a day lasts two years. the temperature range is 1,100 degrees. designing a spacecraft to withstand this extreme environment has been a huge challenge. eric finnegan is messenger's chief engineer at the applied physics laboratory in maryland. the heat shield is made of several layers of ceramic fabric and mylar. it is thin, but amazingly protective. on the sunny side, temperatures will reach 650 degrees fahrenheit. on this side would be what? >> so that about a foot away because this now had a titanium frame, so about a foot away would be like room temperature like we are today. >> that's amazing. >> reporter: the sun is 11 times stronger at mercury than here on earth, so only one third of the solar panels are populated with power generating cells. the rest are mirrors. and the panels will be tilted away so they don't melt. if all goes well, messenger will orbit mercury for a year orbiting the planet more than 700 times. >> every time we go to a new planet, around the planetary system, we are surprised. we are surprised by the diversity of phenomenon and the richness of the process as there we've conducted. >> reporter: that certainly has been the case on mars. >> reporter: jim zimbelman and i were marveling at some images captured by the seemingly indestructible rovers spirit and opportunity now seven years into their 90-day missions. they were sent to the red planet to find proof it was once warm and wet and now we are knee deep in the data. ( cheers ) >> reporter: steve squyres is the principal investigator for the mars exploration rovers, which landed successfully on mars in 2004. seven years later, it seems the mars euphoria is sustained >> and now, we've occupied the planet. we got rovers, we got orbiters. we've been to the farthest reaches of the solar system, with voyager, were about to go on an orbit around mercury. we understand the solar system in a way that it would have just been unimaginable when i was young. we've come so far and i think >> reporter: nasa's next craft headed for mars is taking shape inside a clean room at the jet propulsion lab in california. the mars science laboratory called curiosity is as big as a mini cooper, nuclear powered and designed to hunt for another essential ingredient of life-- organic lecules ashwin vasavada is the deputy project scientist for curiosity. >> we have a six foot arm with a jackhammer or a drill on the end of it. we can place that arm and that drill onto a rock to generate powder, sift the powder into the >> reporter: curiosity is slated to land on mars-- actually be lowered in an unprecedented nail biting sky crane fashion in 2012. it is designed to travel 660 feet per day for just under two years. >> what we need is rocks that we could put into the terrestrial laboratories but that we've selected. not that just fell from the sky but that we have chosen for the maximum potential of preserving evidence of ancient martian life. >> reporter: number two on this list-- a visit to this fascinating place. you can't help but wonder what it would be like to be standing on that icy surface, you know? welcome to jupiter's icy moon europa. >> and we have explored the polar areas on earth which is similar but this entire moon is coated with that ice. >> reporter: the galileo spacecraft to study jupiter flew by europa several times in the late '90s and captured these stunning images. scientists are all but certain there is a liquid ocean beneath the ice. in fact, they believe europa-- the size of our moon-- has three times the amount of water in our oceans. >> i think europa has probably the best chance for life in our solar system beyond earth. >> reporter: bob pappalardo is a senior scientist at the jet propulsion lab. he is leading efforts to design a mission to europa which would use radar to measure the thickness of the ice and maybe lay the groundwork for a mission to see is anything is living in a europa ocean some day. >> we're not talking fish; we're not talking macrofauna; we're talking probably single-cell organism, if there's life at all. >> reporter: so the europans are >> reporter: europa isn't the only icy moon in our solar system that has scientists intrigued. there saturn's moon enceledus. >> so the ice can't be tens of kilometers thick to have that kind of fracturing going on and preserved as clearly as it is. >> reporter: these are water geysers on enceledus-- the images captured by the cassini spacecraft in 2006. >> you have liquid water; you have some of the right ingredients for life. >> reporter: linda spilker is cassini's project scientist. >> we just don't have the instruments on cassini to be able to definitively answer that question, but whenever you have liquid water, there's always that possibility probably very remote that you might have life with that world. >> reporter: the hunt for life also means understanding more about the evolution of planets. a craft called "dawn" will arrive at the asteroid vesta in july. asteroids are like planets with arrested development and thus serve as a frozen time capsule of the very beginning of our solar system. and while messenger homes in on mercury, a craft called "new horizons" is aiming for an arrival at pluto in 2014. when "new horizons" launched, pluto was still considered a planet. it has since been demoted, but like i said, the solar system sure looks different these days. ed weiler is nasa's chief scientist. >> i would predict in this century, humans will prove that life exists somewhere else in the universe. whether it's past, present, fossils, bugs whatever. >> reporter: but this gallery did not come cheap and just he trio of missions envisioned to bring back mars rocks would cost at least $10 billion. has the science outgrown the budget? >> maybe in a national sense. maybe it is a global mission now or it should be that the kinds of science that were talking about may require not just one nation but many nations deciding that this is the importance that sciences do. >> reporter: out here, i suppose we are earthlings first. maybe that is best way to search this limitless frontier for something that might very well be looking for us. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day: japan's nuclear crisis deepened, as radiation levels jumped at a badly damaged nuclear plant. the japan situation helped send wall street tumbling again. the dow jones industrial average lost 240 points. and government forces in libya blasted another town in the east in their drive toward the rebel capital in benghazi. and to hari sreenivasan for what's on the "newshour" online. hari? >> sreenivasan: on our science page, find more on why a new mission to mars tops the space exploration wish list. on japan, read a q&a on relief efforts and view a map of live seismic activity plus, "art beat" has a dispatch from the south by southwest festival. it's a profile of a hearing- impaired filmmaker who seeks to appeal to deaf and hearing audiences alike. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. judy? >> woodruff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll update the situation at japan's damaged reactors. plus, take a look at ireland's debt crisis. i'm judy woodruff. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i mean, where would we be without small businesses? >> we need small businesses. >> they're the ones that help drive growth. >> like electricians, mechanics, carpenters. >> they strengthen our communities. >> every year, chevron spends billions with small businesses. that goes right to the heart of local communities, providing jobs, keeping people at work. they depend on us. >> the economy depends on them. >> and we depend on them. >> you can't manufacture pride, but pride builds great cars. and you'll find in the people at toyota, all across america. and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productionsç ç >> woodruff: radiation levels spiked in the area around japan's damaged fukushima nuclear plant today, forcing emergency workers to temporarily abandon the facility, as tens of thousands of homeless struggled with snows and bitter cold. good evening, i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on efforts to control the growing crisis in japan, including the stories of survivors and rescue crews in towns virtually wiped out by the tsunami. >> woodruff: we examine the health risks from the radiation spewing from the reactors and being carried by the wind far from japan's shores. >> ifill: plus, kwame holman looks at the u.s. nuclear energy industry in the context of japan's current crisis. >> woodruff: then, jeffrey browç updates the conflict in libya,ç as moammar qaddafi's forces move against key rebel strongholds. >> ifill: and science correspondent miles o'brien reports on nasa's next deep space ambitions, including a journey to the planet closest to the sun. >> we'll take y

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: japan raced to prevent a radiation catastrophe today as explosions rocked two reactors at a nuclear plant, and government officials urged 140,000 people near the facility to remain inside. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, we have the latest on the rescue efforts in towns along the coast, even as the nation was hit by another powerful aftershock. and the official death toll topped 3,000, with many more homeless. >> brown: we assess the magnitude of the crisis and what's being done to avert a full nuclear meltdown. >> ifill: and ray suarez examines the economic impact of the disaster, as stock markets plunge in japan and around the world. >> brown: plus, paul solman tells the tale of two ohio counties-- once very similar economically, now far apart. >> you could go to a lot of placess around the country and they're living in one high- income reality and a couple counties away it's a whole different world. >> brown: that's all ahead. on tonight's newshour. major fundi

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: new video reveals the extent of the catastrophe unleashed by friday's earthquake and tsunami in japan. officials estimate the death toll could exceed 10,000, as the nation struggles with a mounting economic, nuclear, and humanitarian crisis. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we have on the ground reports from several towns on japan's northeastern coast, where the search for survivors continues. >> ifill: we update the international rescue effort aimed at getting food, shelter, and medical help to victims. >> suarez: and we talk to newshour science correspondent miles o'brien and radiation expert david brenner about the state of japan's nuclear reactors. >> ifill: plus, margaret warner examines saudi arabia's military move into neighboring bahrain after a weekend of protests. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: breathe in. breathe out. as volatile as the markets have been lately, having the security

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: new video reveals the extent of the catastrophe unleashed by friday's earthquake and tsunami in japan. officials estimate the death toll could exceed 10,000, as the nation struggles with a mounting economic, nuclear, and humanitarian crisis. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> suarez: and i'm ray suarez. on the newshour tonight, we have on the ground reports from several towns on japan's northeastern coast, where the search for survivors continues. >> ifill: we update the international rescue effort aimed at getting food, shelter, and medical help to victims. >> suarez: and we talk to newshour science correspondent miles o'brien and radiation expert david brenner about the state of japan's nuclear reactors. >> ifill: plus, margaret warner examines saudi arabia's military move into neighboring bahrain after a weekend of protests. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: breathe in. breathe out. as volatile as the markets have been lately, having the security of a strong financial partner certainly lets you breathe easier. for more than 140 years, pacific life has helped millions of americans build a secure financial future. wouldn't it be nice to take a deep breath and relax? your financial professional can tell you about pacific life, the power to help you succeed. >> you can't manufacture pride, but pride builds great cars. and you'll find it in the people at toyota, all across america. chevron. we may have more in common than you think. and by bnsf railway. and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: thousands of bodies of earthquake and tsunami victims washed up today in northeastern japan. the confirmed death toll was near 1,900, but there were estimates of more than 10,000 dead in the miyagi region, hardest hit by the catastrophe. meanwhile, survivors struggled to find food, water, and shelter as engineers labored to prevent a nuclear disaster. four days into the disaster and the devastation is almost beyond words. and spreads as far as the eye can see. whole towns, gone. in their place, mounds of wreckage. today new images emerged capturing the moment friday's tsunami ripped through a residential area. the amateur video was taken by people who ran to high ground after a warning. from there they watched in horror as the enormous tidal wave swept through, uprooting trees and houses. video from off the coast showed a giant wall of water leveling the town. residents had 11 minutes to reach higher ground after warning sirens sounded. in the aftermath, the hunt for survivors continued with many of the homeless still searching for their loved ones. >> my relatives and friends are missing after the tsunami destroyed the village. they were all washed away. >> ifill: there was also escalating fear over a nuclear plant that lost its cooling system. a second hydrogen explosion rocked the nuclear station in fukushima, sending a huge cloud of smoke and steam into the air. 11 workers were hurt. on saturday a similar explosion tore through a different reactor building at the same plant. fuel rods in one were fully exposed at least twice today, and authorities continued dumping in sea water to cool down the nuclear core. in vienna, the head of the international atomic energy agency said the situation is unlikely to turn into an all-out crisis. and japanese officials said the containment shell surrounding both reactors remained intact with no evidence of widespread radiation exposure. >> it is true that irradiated materials which are not of a level that can cause harm to humans are moving within limits. there is no need for unreasonable worry. i think people should respond calmly. >> ifill: at the same time 22 people tested positive for contamination. three of them with serious exposure. others waited patiently as medical teams in head-to-toe protective suits used geiger counters and hand held scanners to check for radiation. nearly 200,000 people have been evacuated to temporary shelters. >> the town's response was way too slow. that's why things have ended up this way. >> they said it was safe and there was nothing to worry about. i trusted them completely. >> ifill: off shore the aircraft carrier u.s.s. ronald reagan moved farther out to sea after three of its helicopters flew into a low- level radiation plume 60 miles from the coast. but even without the radiation worries, there are still growing concerns over shortages of water, food, and power. closer to the quake's epicenter, grocery stores remained shut. >> family and friends are all gathered together in one house. now we're running out of food so i'm starting to worry. >> ifill: there were long orderly lines to red cross water tankers to dispense drinking water while lines for gasoline stretched city blocks. the stations that still had supplies were limiting drivers to the equivalent of $2 worth of fuel. financial markets were rocked as well by a broad sell-off today amid fears of economic fallout. the widespread power shortage have halted production at toyota plants and other factories around the country. meanwhile, the japanese government has sent 100,000 troops to lead the relief effort. and at the government's request the u.s. sent two 75- person urban search-and-rescue teams each with six dogs trained to detect live victims. president obama again stressed the u.s. commitment today. >> i've said directly to the prime minister of japan that the united states will continue to offer any assistance we can as japan recovers from multiple disasters. >> ifill: overall more than 90 nations have offered japan assistance. 15 of them are expected to send rescue crews within the next few days. >> suarez: the scope of japan's suffering is being told in towns that dot the coast, and each has its own story of loss without reckoning. one such place is rikuzentakata, where james mates has the first of a series of reports from independent television news. >> reporter: this is the town of rikuzentakata. your eyes will tell you something very different because rikuzentakata, home just 72 hours ago to almost 30,000 people, has been wiped from the face of the earth. the tsunami came, destroyed everything in its path, and then took much of what it had destroyed back out to sea. the rest it left heaps and splintered almost nothing built by man or spared. what happened here is almost beyond description. it seems that an entire town, a thriving coastal community, has been picked up, and then dumped a mile or so up the valley from where it started. i'm standing on what i think is the piece of wall, but it is on top of cars. they are on top of bits of roof. we know that all this happened within an hour or so of that first earthquake. it doesn't bear thinking about how many people would not have had time to get away. these are people who rarely show emotion in public, but stoicism at this time is too hard. they search through the lists of names posted on boards in evacuation centers of those who are known to be safe. across the room survivors have posted handwritten messages on walls asking family, friends, former neighbors, to get in touch if somehow they have made it. in a school gym, the homeless of rikuzentakata wait patiently for evacuation. there will be no going home. >> my family is mother and sister and me, but my mother lost. >> reporter: your mother is lost? >> yes. >> reporter: i'm very sorry. these people lived because they were out of town as the tsunami struck or because they got lucky in the scramble to escape or because they happened to live on higher ground, like this family. >> it was a large earthquake, she told me, but where we were we felt safe. when i looked down i saw the roads in town were jammed with cars and that's why i think there were so few survivors. >> reporter: as we've been filming inside the evacuation center rescue workers have recovered another body from the debris. they have long since given up searching for survivors here finding the dead and preventing the spread of disease is all they're concerned with now. one of the first to be reached but perhaps the hardest hit of all. the town where 10,000 are still unaccounted for. they have now found a thousand bodies here. ambulances making regular trips in and out today to collect them. another thousand have been recovered from the shoreline nearby. every day there are aftershocks. with each one the threat of a new tsunami. today an alert from japan's meteorological agency sent rescue workers and police scurrying to higher ground. a change in wind direction and an all clear on the tsunami alert allowed us to leave. as we left we found a person standing on the concrete foundations of what had once been his house. his family was okay, he told us. we had a vehicle waiting and a hotel to go to. he no longer had a possession in the world. >> ifill: alex thomson has our next report. he's just down the coast in the fishing port of kesennuma. much of the town and its central business now lie in ruins. >> reporter: the port of kesennuma this afternoon. the cries of distant crows, the loudest noise that you can hear. the town's giant tuna fishing fleet stranded where the ebbing tsunami had left them, all over this town. people are coming back here. they can't quite take it in. last friday afternoon minutes before the tsunami, the town's tuna fleet weren't anywhere near here. they were at anchor right out in the bay. but the damage done to the tuna fishing industry and these vessels is as nothing compared to the damage in some ways that was inflicted by the boats and the tsunami right here. suddenly there's a man running through the rubble looking for his lost father. then we find his dad. his house, where? there's just a puddle. but it turns out this was his house. >> and what was this? what was this? >> my house. >> reporter: a businessman looks like he's been crying for several days. he won't forget last friday. >> all at once this wave just came towards us. i've never seen anything like it. from down low like this, you couldn't outrun it. >> reporter: it must have been terrifying. >> quite terrifying. you felt your time had come. >> reporter: ships capsized, dumped across the town. many of them burnt out. at least one still smoldering. across the bay, helicopters are flying relays round the clock to deal with a forest fire on the island across the sound. the quakes ruptured every fuel tank for miles here starting intense fires, including this one now spreading across this island. this small tender, the only boat that is working to get the firefighters in and frightened residents out. this woman had been stuck there for three days, and the blaze is spreading. >> the only information we're getting is from relatives and the men on the island. they say people have been swept away and their houses are gone. >> reporter: while some towns are obliterated along this coast here it's an entire port, an entire sector of industry simple he'll taken out. and there is this person's grandchildren, two of the 14 who lived where now there's just a puddle, foundations and a stranded fishing fleet. >> suarez: in addition to the thousands of dead in japan, untold numbers are injured. angus walker is in ishinomaki, where a hospital is trying to cope with human suffering beyond imagining. >> reporter: four days on and they're still finding bodies. this was a small town 15 miles inland. an elderly man was taken away, and a sergeant told me his unit needed food and water. if the army needs supplies, what hope is there for anyone else? until friday, this was one of ishinomaki's quiet district hospitals. now camp beds fill the corridors. mainly the elderly who are suffering the most. look into the eye of this 92-year-old woman. 26 when the atom bombs were dropped on japan, did she ever expect nature to match the destructive force of war? severe damage to the roads along japan's north eastern coast make it very difficult to get aid to the victims of this disaster. look at this. the force of the earthquake has flung pieces of tarmac like playing cards. 26-year-old, his wife and friends had just waded out of their village. he cradled his ten day old daughter. what's the name of the baby? >> lucky. >> reporter: lucky? she's lucky to be alive. first from japan i talked with casey calamusa in tokyo >> suarez: now, for more on the efforts to bring international relief to japan. catherine bragg is the assistant secretary general for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. casey, welcome. what do people need most right now? and can you get it to them? >> that's a good question. our assessment teams have basically found out that what's to be expected. the most needed items right now are food, water, temporary shelter, and clothing. >> suarez: what kind of physical footprint are we talking about for the places in the most dire need right now? it's been hard to get an idea of the size of the affected area that we're talking about. >> one of the things that perhaps isn't made clear is how difficult it is to even reach these populations that have been stranded and cut off now. the roads have been washed out. there have been cars turned over and washed on to the highways. trees have been uprooted and blown over. it's almost impossible in a lot of cases to get anywhere by car. you need to be air lifted in. >> suarez: it's still a pretty cold time of the year in northern japan. have people been finding places to congress congregate, to get out of the elements in the area where the destruction have been the worst. >> there have been community shelters opening up at churches and schools and community centers. so there have been mass evacuations to those areas where they've been staying. that's one of the things that world vision is working on as well in its initial distribution we brought in jackets for babies simply realizing how vulnerable they are to the cold. >> suarez: when people congregate is it easier to get them food and water? >> certainly. when you have a population that is spread out that will make it much harder to target them and reach them in mass numbers. in a sense that does help for the aid and the distributions that they are all in one place or gathered together. right now the challenge is simply getting to them and then also what we're going to do medium to long term. >> suarez: thanks a lot, casey. good to talk to you. >> thanks for having me. >> suarez: now to united nations efforts to bring international relief to japan. catherine bragg is the assistant secretary general for the coordination of humanitarian affairs. ms. bragg, has japan made specific requests for aid? what have they been asking for? >> japan is actually a very well prepared and well resourced country when it comes to disaster response. so they have the response effort very much in hand and have been doing heroic work in that respect. but there are certain areas where the united nations as a particular role to play. in the early days after a disaster like this, search-and-rescue is the most important part. and part of what we can do and what the japanese government has requested of the united nations is to help coordinate the international search-and-rescue teams that are coming into the country. at the moment, the government of japan has accepted such rescue teams from 15 countries. there are at least another 19 countries on standby status at the moment and at least another 40 others who have also offered to send search-and-rescue teams. the coordination of all of this is something that the united nations can do for the government and for the people of japan. the united nations also helps to put out the humanitarian information for the use of and for the information of anyone who is interested from a humanitarian point of view. so we have been putting out a situation report from saturday morning which is the second day after the earthquake. we have been doing a daily situation report. so that for any party so interested in the situation from a humanitarian point of view such as where the gaps are in terms of fulfilling the needs of the survivors, where... what are the extent of the evacuation. that can be found in the information products that we put out. >> suarez: earlier in the program it's been reported on several occasions how difficult it is to get around the country. with those international search-and-rescue teams, can you get your assets into japan? and into the affected areas? >> yes, they are. and part of what international search-and-rescue teams have to do is they have to be self-sufficient. so they will be bringing in all of their own equipment, including the search-and-rescue dogs as well. there are a number of dogs that are with the teams. and they will be beginning... they have been getting into the area and have been assisting with the search-and-rescue. the airport at the moment is gradually opening. >> suarez: is it made more complicated, your work, by the problems with the radiation? there have been several releases. people are being evacuated from affected areas. do you not only have to worry about that for the people you're going to help but for the rescue workers themselves? >> of course we are concerned just as everybody. we have to remember this is actually a triple level of disasters. we have both the effect of the earthquake. we have the effect of the after math of the tsunami. and now with the nuclear threat as well. so this is not like any other situations, comparable situations that we can think of. this is not like haiti last year, not even like the tsunami in 2004. so it is a bit of a different situation that we have to deal with. but at the moment our understanding is that the level of radiation is not to the level that is of concern yet, that we would be withdrawing aid workers from the area. we of course are monitoring the reports from both the government and the international atomic energy agency as to what is the level of risks? at this point our understanding is that it has not reached that level where we would be withdrawing humanitarian workers from the area. >> suarez: in many other disasters, if you locate affected people, stabilize them, help out, your work is done. but here with the threat of very large aftershocks and maybe subsequent tsunamis, do you also have to move them to some place where they're no longer vulnerable? >> most of those evacuated and the survivors are in evacuation centers, in about over 2,000 evacuation centers. as i mentioned before japan is a very, very well prepared country for this. this is the sort of disaster scenario that they have been rehearsing for years so it is true that both the rescue and the relief efforts are constantly being hampered by aftershocks and also tsunami warnings and the like. it is part of the context of how aid can reach the people. >> suarez: u.n. assistant secretary general catherine bragg, thanks for joining us. >> you're most welcome. my pleasure. >> ifill: coming up, more on the >> ifill: coming up, more on the status of japan's nuclear power plants; plus, saudi arabia sends troops into bahrain. but first, with the other news of the day, here's kwame holman. >> holman: libyan leader moammar qaddafi pressed his assault on rebel-held towns today. government planes carried out new air strikes on ajdabiyah, and the larger city of benghazi lay ahead. we have a report from bill neely of independent news. . >> reporter: qaddafi's men are on the road to benghazi, and the rebels are on the run. just days ago and for 100 miles around, this was in rebel hands. not anymore. qaddafi state television has been showing off his latest prize, the oil town. this complex provides electricity to the rebel capital benghazi. qaddafi could now cut its power. his men simply out-gunned the rebels, retaking the oil towns with artillery, tanks and planes, capturing 150 miles in days. the rebels say their retreat is strategic, and they had simply advanced too far too fast. the hospital was abandoned quickly. this is it just five days ago, filled with injured rebel fighters and with their dreams of freedom and of toppling qaddafi. the dreams, like the fighters, are gone. but the hospital is deserted. qaddafi's army spokesman says the reels are al qaeda terrorists. i asked him if he's now planning to attack benghazi. >> to deal with them you're going to need really a full- scale military action. >> reporter: but that's exactly what qaddafi does. this is zawayih just hours after it was taken. this is what benghazi can expect. qaddafi's onslaught is ferocious. one of his crack brigades in the vanguard dozens of troops sacrificed. dozens of civilians reported killed by indiscriminate fire. this town was bombarded for seven straight days by tanks, by artillery, by the very best qaddafi could throw at it. you can see burnt-out cars, rocket propelled grenade and bullet holes in the buildings here. zawiyah was crushed ruthlessly. qaddafi's men have benghazi in their sights. the revolution is on its knees. >> holman: government forces also used tanks to re-capture the small western town of zuwarah today. and at the u.n., the security council discussed imposing a no- fly zone, but reached no consensus. in afghanistan, a suicide bombing killed 35 people today at a military recruiting center. afghan officials said the bomber targeted a building in kunduz province. he blew himself up in the crowd outside. the taliban claimed responsibility. the group attacked the same recruiting site last december. security forces also were targeted in eastern iraq. at least ten iraqi soldiers died when a bomber detonated a car laden with explosives. it happened outside the headquarters of an army intelligence battalion, northeast of baghdad. at least 30 people were wounded in the bombing. the high court in lahore, pakistan, delayed a ruling today on whether an american jailed there has diplomatic immunity. raymond davis is accused of killing two pakistanis. he was working for the c.i.a. at the time. the immunity issue now goes to the trial court, set to convene on wednesday. the u.s. state department has lost its chief spokesman over the wikileaks case. p.j. crowley resigned sunday after saying the military's treatment of army private first class bradley manning was "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." manning is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents. he's being held in solitary confinement. and at night, he was being stripped and made to wear a suicide-proof smock. the events in japan will not change u.s. plans for more nuclear energy. a white house spokesman said today, "it remains a part of the president's overall energy plan." but several european countries began reassessing. switzerland suspended plans to replace old nuclear plants with new ones, and germany delayed a decision on extending the life of its nuclear plants. >> we want to form an independent investigating commission with the task of undertaking a new risk analysis of all german nuclear power plants. this based on currently available information about events in japan, especially looking at the security of the cooling system. >> holman: at least 195 nuclear power plants are operating throughout europe. of 19 plants under construction in europe and asia, most are being built in russia. on wall street today, stocks fell amid concerns over the economic effects of the japanese earthquake and tsunami. the dow jones industrial average lost 51 points to close at 11,993. the nasdaq fell 14 points to close at 2701. president obama asked congress today to revamp the nation's main education law before the new school year begins in september. republicans and democrats agree that "no child left behind" needs revising, but they disagree on the federal role in education. the president said he wants changes to support innovation and target more funding on schools where students are doing poorly. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: we take a closer look look now at some of the questions raised about the state of japan's damaged nuclear reactors. i'm joined by newshour science correspondent miles o'brien and david brenner, director of the center for radiological research at columbia university. welcome. miles, i'll start with you. what is typical? what is supposed to happen and what is happening in japan right now. >> let's do a little bit of boiling water reactor 101. let's look at a little graphic here to help people understand. we've heard them talk about the fuel rods, for example. these are shafts of zir cone yum inside are little pellets of uranium encased in ceramic. those rods go inside this reactor primary containment vessel. that's the last line of defense. you don't want that ever to breach. we should be very clear that we have no inindication that those primary containment vessels at those three stricken plants, reactors in japan, have been breached at all. now what happens is these rely on water for cooling. these rods need to be bathed in water. when there's a seismic activity, when there's some sort of earthquake, something begins what's called a skram. interesting acronymn. it shuts down the plant in a quick manner. you need a... additional power, auxiliary power in order to keep the water over the fuel rods and keep them cool enough. the next line of defense is an important point as well. this has been breached in twos those two explosions. the reactor inside the primary containment vessel. then there's the secondary containment vessel. what happened in this case was there was venting of hydrogen into the secondary structure. take hindenburg for just a moment. a spark and an explosion occurs. that is where we've seen a very likely most of the release of the radioactive release of cesium and iodine. this comes from digital globe which gives you an idea. on the left-hand side of the picture that's one of the vessels which is still contained. in the middle you see one that has had the explosion because of the hydrogen which exploded. >> ifill: once again that's the roof and the walls but not the containment... not nuclear reactor. >> just to be clear. that primary containment vessel remains intact. that's very important. >> ifill: when we talk about this kind of... we use the term meltdown very loosely as we talk about things like this. do we have any indication of the degree of damage that has been done when these rods were uncovered by water? >> i've talked to quite a few experts today. what they tell you is that some things have melted. the question, has the fuel itself melted? probably the rods. as a matter of fact there's no doubt about that. but has it reached the point where the fuel begins melting and becomes this molten mass which creates that scenario we've heard in the movies, the china syndrome. i don't know what you call it on this side of the planet. the cleveland syndrome or something. in theory it becomes so hot that it would melt its way out of this primary containment chamber. we haven't seen that yet but this is still a very tense time. they're pouring in sea water into these vessels as best they can to keep it cool. that means they've written off these plants. you'll never be able to use them again. the sea water is modulated with boron to make sure that neurons aren't active. that means the plants are a write-off. the question is can they continue keeping this sea water in at a proper level to keep the temperatures safe. >> ifill: is what we just saw in those pictures, is that we have here in the united states? is it the same kind of set-up? >> well, basically our struck truers are a little beefier than that. one important point which i should tell everybody is that the diesel fuel tanks for the auxiliary generators which keep the water pumping are all buried here in the united states. these tanks were above ground for reasons that a lot of engineers can't fully understand. this is, after all, a seismically active area. the ring of fire. japanese after all invented the term tsunami. the fact that they had fuel tanks of diesel to run these generators this last resort generator above grown has people mystified. >> ifill: without the power you can't keep it cool. that's the problem we're facing tonight. i want to turn to david brenner and ask for your assessment of how serious a situation is this potentially? >> well, it's very hard really at this point in time to give a clear answer to that question. we have some parameters that we can think about. there have been two major nuclear power plant disasters in the world. there was the one in this country at three mile island. there was the one at chernobyl in the old soviet union. just to put perspective on those two, chernobyl was the equivalent of a million three mile islands. so really the question is, are we closer to a three mile situation or are we closer to a chernobyl situation? >> ifill: what's the answer to that? >> i think the answer.... >> ifill: go ahead. >> i think the answer to that question is clearly we're closer to a chernobyl situation. if the event were to stop right now, i'm sorry... i said that exactly wrong. we're clearly closer to a three mile island situation. if the incident was to stop right now, the amount of radioactive release is really very small. and the risk to the general population, just like it was in three mile island, would be very small indeed. of course, we await.... >> ifill: pardon me. understanding that none of us know tonight exactly how much radiation may have been released we have heard some reports and we saw in some of the earlier taped pieces people being wanded and checked for irradiation exposure. do we know, do we have any sense about how serious that might be? >> i think we have a good idea at this point in time that the radiation exposure to the general public and i'm not talking about the nuclear power workers but to the general public at had point is clearly very small. the radiation risks course pondingly are very small. the issue with the nuclear power on the other hand the people inside the plant is very different. i think pretty good evidence that there have been in high- dose exposures to those folks. the folks who are actually fighting the situation inside. and are trying to get the water into the nuclear fuel. i think we know there are some high doses associated with those folks. so the general population so far i think that the doses are low. >> ifill: one of these reactors went online in 1971. is the age of the plant significant in this case? >> i think it is. i think it's actually key to the whole scenario. that's 40 years ago. the actual lifetime of this reactor was scheduled to be 25 years. and really what we see is, as you've just heard, the back-up system were really not as good as they should have been. and as time has gone on over the years, the newer plants have better and better and more and more back-up systems in place. this plant actually had only one back-up system. the secondary generators. when they failed there was nothing. and that's not the case with any modern nuclear reactor. so it is crucial that this was a 1971 machine. >> ifill: as we look over and watch this for the next several days and watch to see whether the cores cool down, what are we looking for? what should we look for to fiend out if things are getting better or getting worse? >> there are really two issues which are going to determine the public health significance. that's just how much releases we get in the next couple of days, and the other point actually is the wind. the wind is actually central here. which way is the wind going to below? among all the awful things that are happening here, the one bright sign is that the wind is actually blowing off shore. so the wind is actually taking whatever radioactive materials are being deposited in the atmosphere and moving them off shore to the sea. we very much hope that that continues and we continue have off-shore winds that are ameliorate the whole situation but it's the winds and how much radioactivity is actually admitted from these reactors. >> ifill: give me a best-case scenario and a worst case scenario. >> the best case is that in the next day or so they get the... they get enough water into the fuel, and there's very little more release than we have right now. then we're going to be in basically a three mile island situation where although there were releases they were so small that there was no good evidence of any public health risk to the surrounding population. that's the best case scenario. the worst case scenario is in fact that there is a significant radioactive release in the next couple of days. i think the next 48 hours is really crucial here. we still hope that most of the plume will get blown to sea but the worst case scenario is that the wind would change and the plume is starting to approach the population. which as you know has been evacuated some miles away now from the nuclear plant. but still the plume will reach the population if the wind is blowing in the right direction. >> ifill: of course. we'll be watching all of that, david brenner at columbia university, miles o'brien of newshour science correspondent. thank you both very much. >> >> suarez: this is pledge week on public television. we'll be back shortly with an update on the turmoil in bahrain. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> ifill: for those stations not taking a pledge break, we have the story of a plant native to california that scientists thought had disappeared. the report was produced by kqed- san francisco, and is narrated by don mahoney, curator with the san francisco botanical garden society. >> manzanita has always been somewhat of a mystery. it went extinct in the wild. finding a plant has always been a holy grail. we're in the southern edge of golden gate park in the california native garden in the san francisco botanical garden. manzanitas are the iconic plant of california. there are probably roughly 50 species of manzanitas in california. in the rest of the world there are probably only two or three species. so california is the hot bed of manzanitas. we have them growing from on the beach all the way to the high sierra. in spanish manzanita means little apple. just like apples they're quite edible. manzanitas come in all sizes and shapes. we have lots of them here. manzanitas produces these beautiful little white bell shaped flowers. before there were garden plants and there were only wild plants bumble bees used manzanitas in the winter time. the bark can be very peely and shiny, almost a cinnamon coppery color. two species of manzanita grow only in san francisco. so they're very rare. one of them is even named francis ganna. the francis ganna manzanita is a low-growing shrub. it is very adapted to our fog zone. most manzanitas grow in areas where it's very hot and dry. they really won't grow well in san francisco. this one loves san francisco. this one is particularly happy, and i think it's happy with its friends which is right here. here it is just kind of creeping slowly over the rock as if it was a slow-moving waterfall. geologists have identified a special kind of rock which occurs in earthquake fault zones. there's a lot of this serpententite. it's toxic to both plants. this manzanita thrives on it. san francisco has not been kind to its native plants until recent years. this one grew on some very valuable real estate. as san francisco developed and became more and more urbanizeded it became apparent this this land was going to be developed for housing. this manzanita was never really plentiful. it grew only in san francisco and only on serpenten. luckily those were areas where they decided to put cemeteries and they left a lot of the natural vegetation around the edges of the cemeteries. so it continued to exist al they decided to move the cemeteries. at that time they brought bulldozers in and there went the last of the plant. the final destruction occurred in 1940. a few bot tonights with a lot of forefought salvaged propagation material from these plants and took it to botanical gardens and it was saved. as far as our records show, all of them were collected from laurel hill cemetery where laurel heights is now. in october of 2009, doyle drive began its construction project. just south of the toll plaza within several hundred meters of the south end of the golden gate bridge on a ser pen teen outcropping. a lot of vegetation was cleared. this exposed a wonderful plant which was noticed by a young botanist. this was considered extinct manzanita. in the middle of a billion dollar construction project. the manzanita was moved about a mile to a new spot for its own protection. it's best if that location is kept secret. i look at remaining natural habitats as the original skin of the earth. and there's very little of that left in san francisco. and to actually find one of the anchor and key plants that originally existed in san francisco and to be able to save it meant a lot to anybody who works with plants and the environment. as they prepared the plant for moving, they had to clip off some of the edges. all that material was given to five different botanical institutions to propagate from cuttings. when the material arrived it looked much like little branches of this, and what we had to do was sort through it and find almost every living green stem like this. once the cuttings were made they were put in a plastic house in indirect sun. once they have roots, you move them into the soil they're going to grow in from that point on. it feels really good to see these growing. they're big enough that they're ready to move up to the next size of pot. we had excellent success. we had probably an 80 or 90% success rate. we now have 169 plants potted up with their own roots looking strong and happy. there are suitable spots in the bay area that have serpentine that are on public property where we could plant these plants out. that's actively being pursued. ultimately... the ultimate goal is to establish breeding populations in the wild so you pretty much need to have genes coming from different members of the population. well, since the doyle drive is just one member of that population, it's wonderful we have these former laurel hill members that have been saved in botanical gardens because now we do have different members of the population. they can be planted next to each other. they can happily cross. that will give rise to a viable wild population. >> ifill: you can find an extended version of that >> suarez: find an extended version of that story by following a link on our web site. >> suarez: another dramatic turn in the revolts sweeping the arab world. margaret warner has that story. >> warner: saudi arabia and other gulf states sent at least a thousand troops and police and dozens of military vehicles across a cause way into bahrain today. the incursion followed a month of demonstrations and clashes in the persian gulf island kingdom as bahrain's majority shiites protest the two-century rule of minority sunnis. seven have been killed. on saturday defense secretary robert gates visited bahrain, home to the u.s. navy's fifth fleet, to tell its rulers they have to take more than what he called baby steps toward reform. the crown prince said he was trying to get all sides to engage in a dialogue. >> we know that a significant portion of the electoral base feels that their voice is unheard. and they want the respect due to them to be given to them by the opposition. they want to sit with them and talk to them. so, you know, at the end of the day we're all going to have to live in the same country together. we're all going to have to talk to each other s. >> warner: a coalition of bahrain's shiite-led opposition groups denounced the arrival of forces from the council calling it an occupation. white house spokesman jay carney said the u.s. does not consider today's move an invasion. he urged the bahrainy government to show restraint and begin talks with the protestors. for more on this move by the saudis and other gulf states we go to a former persian gulf military analyst at the c.i.a.. he's now research director at the center of the brookings institution. welcome. this is the first cross-border military move we've seen in response to any of these protests across the arab world. how shall we look at this? i mean is this an invasion or is this the saudis responding to a 911 call? >> well, of course, to some extent it depends on your per spekt itch. for the for the opposition it's an invasion. for the government of bahrain it is much needed support from an ally. i think what's important about it though is it does demonstrate the fear of so many of the regimes in the region. what they see is the tidal wave, pardon the current affairs pun, of democracy sweeping the nation, threatening their own regimes. what's been fascinating is is that the saudis, while they have internally embraced a program of reform over the past six years have been tremendously frightened by what they're seeing elsewhere in the region fearing that reform could turn into revolution which could sweep not only the bahrainees from power, the other gcc states, perhaps even themselves. >> warner: how much is driven by their fear of even having great shia participation or maybe a shia-led government as part of this arabian peninsula community. >> that's obviously a complicating factor for the saudis. it's always hard to know how much of this is that the saudis are fearful that any kind of successful revolution in the gulf could lead to a contagion effect in saudi arabia and how much of it is about the fact that saudi arabia's eastern province which borders on bahrain or is very close to bahrain separated only by a small strip of water is majority shia just as bahrain is. and overseen by a majority sunni population so that almost certainly is a major factor causing the saudis to say, you know what? we need to go in therein nip this thing in the bud. we need to snuff out any prospect for a real revolution in bahrain which could create problems for us. >> warner: now how engaged do you expect this force to become against the protesters? today there was no engagement between the two but the protests are strong and yesterday they beat back the riot police, the bahrainy riot police. could you see these gulf troops firing on bahrainy protestors? >> obviously one of the reasons that i think that the saudis decide to go in is that it is from their perspective important to demonstrate to the bahrainees that they're not going to allow this to go so far. protestors just like those in many other countries believe that their own army is unlikely to fire on them because the soldiers are of the same people. you introduce a foreign force and that element is absent. they can't be sure that the saudis won't fire on them. in fact they have to assume that they will. all that said, i think that the saudis also have to make a calculation. there almost certainly is a debate between saudi arabia as to whether or not they want to have their forces actually opening fire on bahrainy civilians. some of the more hard line elements in the kingdom may think this would have a palliative effect whereas the more moderate elements probably recognize this would create all kinds of problems for saudi arabia elsewhere in the region. >> warner: does this move by the bahrainees, the gulf states, the saudis, also represent a split with washington on how they should be responding to all these calls for reform? >> i think that this does illustrate the fact that the saudis in particular have a very different view of what's happening in the region. i think that one of the hardest things that washington has been dealing with is how to on the one hand welcome forces of democratic change in the region while simultaneously reassuring the united states more traditional conservative allies like saudi arabia, which while on the one hand being willing to reform internally itself has been extremely discontinue certained by these waves of revolution, these demands for much greater change elsewhere in the region. >> warner: finally, do you see any evidence yet that iran is trying to exploit this? or do you think that this move by saudi troops into bahrain will in some way invite that? >> my suspicion is that the saudis and the bahrainees both suspect that the iranians are deeply involved in what's going on. >> warner: washington says there's no evidence. >> but it's been a persistent pattern that bahrain in particular has tended to blame the problems between sunni and shia on iranian instigation. there have been time s when the iranians have been more involved but the best evidence that seems available is that this really isn't about iran. this really is about genuine shia and even wider bahrainy grievance against the government there. but i think that one of the other factors that probably is driving the saudis and the bahrainy government is their fear that even if the iranians haven't been behind it so far, the worst the chaos gets the more likely that iran will get involved. >> warner: kenneth pollack of the brookings institution, thanks a lot. >> my pleasure. thank you for having me. >> ifill: >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. thousands of bodies of earthquake and tsunami victims washed up in northeastern japan, amid estimates of 10,000 dead. japanese engineers struggle to prevent meltdowns. libyan government forces attacked another town in their steady push to recapture the rebel-held east. and to kwame holman, for what's on the newshour online. kwame? >> holman: we have much more on the earthquake, including video and photos, a map of live seismic data, the science behind the damaged nuclear reactors, and a lesson plan for teachers on explaining tsunamis. patchwork nation previews paul solman's next report on income inequality in the u.s. that's on our making sense page. plus, on art beat, find our weekly poem. tonight, carol ann davis reads her work, "distal." all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. ray? >> suarez: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll have the latest on the devastation and the recovery efforts in japan. i'm ray suarez. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you on-line, and again here tomorrow evening. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> oil companies make huge profits. >> last year, chevron made a lot of money. >> where does it go? >> every penny and more went into bringing energy to the world. >> the economy is tough right now, everywhere. >> we pumped $21 million into local economies, into small businesses, communities, equipment, materials. >> that money could make a big difference to a lot of people. moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf. pacific life-- the power to help you succeed. and by toyota. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by 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captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: a massive earthquake struck japan today, the largest in the nation's history. it triggered tsunami waves that killed at least 1,000 people. and the entire pacific, including the west coast of the u.s., was put on alert. good evening. i'm jim lehrer. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, we have video of the disaster, and talk to three people in tokyo for firsthand accounts of what they experienced and how the nation responded. >> lehrer: and we get an early assessment of how well japan was prepared for the dual hit of the earthquake and the tsunami. >> woodruff: then, we excerpt president obama's remarks about the federal budget stalemate and the uprising in libya at a white house news conference. >> we are tightening the noose on qaddafi, seymour and more isolated internationally both through sanctions as well as an arms embargo. >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. the republican-led wisconsin legislature stripped nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers today. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we get the latest on today's vote and the protests in the state's capital from frederica freyburg of wisconsin public television. >> lehrer: then, we look at today's house hearings on terrorism and islamic radicals in america. margaret warner talks with congressmen keith ellison and michael mccaul. >> woodruff: "frontline's" martin smith has an exclusive interview with brian manning, father of accused wikileaks source private bradley manning on his son's imprisonment. >> his clothing is being taken away from-- he's being humiliated by having to stand at attention in front of people-- male, or female, as far as i know, you know, that are fully clothed. >> lehrer: and republican congresswoman kay granger discusses cuts in foreign aid. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs n

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. moammar qaddafi said libyans will fight back if other nations impose a no-fly zone over the country. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on the battles for key towns to the west and east of tripoli. and former state department officials richard haass and ann-marie slaughter debate whether the west should intervene. >> lehrer: then, judy woodruff talks with laura bush, melinda gates, and helene gayle about foreign aid programs aimed at women and children. >> we need to be sure we are looking at the world wide and it is in our security interests as well as our moral interest to pay attention to the rest of the world. >> brown: margaret warner interviews republican governor bob mcdonnell of virginia about battles in the states over public-sector unions. >> lehrer: and we look at the shake-up at npr, after a high level executive was shown on a hidden camera criticizing republicans. that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newsh

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. we have two major stories tonight-- the jobless rate dropped to its lowest in nearly two years; and the counteroffensive by qaddafi forces escalated in libya. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, on the unemployment front, jeffrey brown looks at what the new hiring numbers mean for the economic recovery. >> lehrer: then, we have the latest on another deadly day in libya, and examine military options by american or international forces. >> woodruff: plus, paul solman visits two rhode island cities that are struggling to honor pension pledges to retired public workers. >> i've been telling my firefighters and police i am happy to give 3%, i can not afford to fund your pension. >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks offer their weekly analysis. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energy is vital to

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. president obama said the u.s. and the world must be ready to act rapidly if the crisis in libya deteriorates. and he didn't rule out the use of a no-fly zone over the country. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the "newshour" tonight: we get the latest on the fierce fighting in the oil city of brega and the exodus of refugees fleeing the violence. >> woodruff: plus, we talk to libya's ambassador to the united states, ali suleiman aujali who denounced moammar qaddafi last week. >> brown: then, as states battle public sector unions, we have a newsmaker interview with afl-cio chief, richard trumka. >> woodruff: spencer michels reports on the outcry over hikes in insurance premiums in california. >> the new higher health insurance rates for individuals have sparked protests and calls for the government to step in. >> brown: and hari sreenivasan examines mexico's deadly drug wars, as president felipe calderon visits the white house. >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour."

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. libyan rebels repelled air and ground attacks on oil installations in eastern libya by forces loyal to moammar qaddafi. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. on the "newshour" tonight, we have the latest on the counter- offensives as qaddafi warns the international community thousands of libyans will die if america and nato enter libya. >> woodruff: plus we look at military options for the u.s. and others, including establishing a no-fly zone over the north african nation. >> warner: marcia coyle gives us the latest from the supreme court, including today's 8-1 ruling upholding the free speech rights of protesters at military funerals. >> woodruff: spencer michels reports on the controversy surrounding dozens of no fishing zones off the coast of california. >> california is establishing dozens of protected areas in the ocean, but the problem is there aren't enough game wardens to enforce the rules. >> warner: and jeffrey brown talks to libyan-born u.s. poet khaled mattawa about life in

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. a humanitarian crisis is quickly coming to a head in libya as thousands of refugees try to escape the fighting. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, the latest from the libya tunisian border, plus margaret warner talks with an eyewitness to last night's battle between pro- and anti-qaddafi forces outside of tripoli. >> we are in a very bad situation. maybe we'll be invaded at any time. there will be a massacre. >> brown: then, the prospects for a long-term deal on federal spending cut. we hear from democratic senator dick durbin of illinois and republican congressman allen west of florida. >> woodruff: we look at the core issue dividing state employees and legislatures with shrinking budgets. who has better wages and benefits, public or private sector workers? >> brown: and marcia coyle of the "national law journal" analyzes two decisions handed down by the supreme court today on employment discrimination and corporate privacy. that's all ahead on tonight's newsh

to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> tom: stocks rally to cap off a volatile february, but traders say the bulls' path could be blocked by a huge obstacle: rising oil prices. >> there scenario where oil prices derail the stock market is real. it's not a baseline scenario. >> susie: we look at how higher crude prices could affect the market and how higher gasoline prices are putting the squeeze on small businesses. you're watching "nightly business report" for monday, february 28. this is "nightly business report" with susie gharib and tom hudson. "nightly business report" is made possible by: this program is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. captioning sponsored by wpbt >> susie: good evening, everyone. february was an up month for stocks and oil prices.